The League of 67
by georgemiser
Summary: Inspired by the work of Draco Orwell, Here's a (hopefully well written) story about a teenage race car driver, a popular biker turned teacher, a patriotic superhero, a respected Aquanaut and a talking steam engine.
1. Building the Team

Inspired by the works of Draco Orwell. Made with his blessing.

The late 1960s were a time of great disillusionment and paranoia. The great Post-War dream had gone off and many of the veterans that had served in that war were starting to ask themselves one vital question. "Is this what we fought Hynkle for?" Youthful/Teenage rebellion was at it's highest with the rise of the Hippie or ''Flower Child'' movement of that decade. Many teenagers abandoned what they saw, prehaps rightfully so, as society's over heightened exceptions, choosing to live "as one of with nature." Others joined violent criminal gangs, leading to events such as the "Born Losers" Incident in Big Rock, San Andreas. (1968) Most however, simply rebelled personally against their parents and other authority figures without causing significant trouble, many finding solace in such bands and artists as Duke Dexter, (Now under investigation by Operation Yewtree) The Rutles, The Thamesmen (Later known as Spinal Tap) and the ani-men musical trio "The Chipmunks." Others found solace not in the musical world, but in the world of superheroes, through such figures as Peter Parker, Charles Xavier's "X-Men" and the famous "Teen Titans" troupe. Aside from the problems with the Teenager movement, the anti-communist mentality in the west meant that tensions between the USA and USSR were at an all time high. Great Britain, The US and other members of NATO found themselves sending more and more agents into the field of battle. The most notable of these being Britain's notorious agent "007", the morally reprehensible Jimmy Bond, who was thoroughly despised by the more liberal teens for his womanising, murderous and borderline psychotic lifestyle. Had the truth been known, similar feelings might have been mirrored again in the early 2000s with the organisation "WOOHP" who in 2001, relocated and proceeded to outright force three high school girls from Rockford Hills into becoming agents.

In these troubled and cynical times, The governments even became distrustful of their superheroes, (Right wing editor of New York's Daily Bugle ''J. Jonah Jameson'' taking an almost obsessive stance against Peter Parker's costumed identity.) what with many of them taking a growing stance towards the rebellious youth's vision of a ''better world.'' This lead to US President, Patrick O'Malley and British Prime Minister, George Hyde (no relation to Henry Jekyll's alter ego) to call an emergency meeting at Downing Street on September 1st of 1967. Their other guest being Japanese Prime Minister, Eisaku Satō. The 3 men feared the growing conflicts of the era and perhaps sensing an all out explosion of anarchy on the horizon due to what they perceived as a ''lack of moral,'' proposed that a new ''League'' would be formed between the three countries, made up of remarkable or simply talented beings that the youth of the world would recognize and admire, that could raise moral across the world, combat the juvenile delinquency problem in the west, combat problems abroad and hopefully spread anti communist, Pro capitalist and pro western (or at least pro American) thinking to the ''builders of the future.''

Hyde therefore called upon one Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, former member of the Federal Agents Bureau and then field operative of the secret organisation ''International Rescue'' until her retirement in 1987, to bring together such a team. Creighton-Ward agreed, but voiced her concerns on the project, given the sordid and in other cases tragic pasts of former leagues, stretching back to the 1898 Murray League. Hyde reassured her that this league would be different. Made up of people that, in his mind, would get along famously and would be marketable in their own ways. Their mixed pro authority/pro liberal leanings making them not only easy to ''persuade,'' but also ideal figures to be admired via their optimism, devotion to duty, moral compasses and ability to relate to the youth who they would no doubt get to calm down and cooperate with the authority they seemingly so despised, before they made ''too many waves.'' Creighton-Ward saw that this ''League'' was nothing more than a publicity stunt for the world leaders to preserve their own power, gain the trust of the masses and curb the threat of any real change with a group of obedient puppets. However, she also understood that the world at that time needed hope and that this team, though obedient to their respective governments, would at least be trying to solve problems their own way, which hopefully would be the right and ethical way. After all if the job was done, what did these three men care if it was done in a way that didn't suit their ideals entirely? She decided therefore, to pick team members from each of the three leader's countries that would be able to disobey government orders when needed. In this case it seems that America got the ''lion's share'' in terms of members, with Japan and the UK only having one recruit each to their name. The choices picked however, all had one common theme. (Though this was not realised until the middle of their tenure.) Vehicles. (It should be noted that Lady Penelope was considered for the league but ultimately refused the offer given to her.) The choices for the team were as follows.

Princess Diana Trevor of Tyhemyscura- An Amazonian/American superhero and Princess of the island of Themyscira, Trevor had expressed a desire to leave her isolated life, after discovering and eventually falling in love with US air pilot and agent, Captain Steve Trevor, who washed up on the shores of the island in the 1940s. Trevor's people, the female Amazons of Tyhemiscura, had chosen to live a life free from the hardships of the world of men and due to their mystical means of observing the future, had (at the time) created technology far beyond man's most advanced machines. Once the second world war came to their doorstep however, it was decided that an Amazon should be sent over to America, which at the time was one of the few democratic counties still in good standing, to return Trevor and fight crime and axis agents there. The catch being that they would never be able to return home. Queen Hippolyta had forbidden her daughter from entering the tournament to decide who should go to the states. After deceiving her mother with a disguise, Trevor was eventually victorious. In order to have her blend in with her new ''home,'' she was given a costume based on the American flag as well as a mystically charged lasso that caused all those who were ensnared by it to tell nothing but truths. Like all Amazons, her bracelets, forged as shackles by the Amazon's captor the Greek hero ''Hercules,'' were bulletproof and could block all shells. She was also, of course, considerably stronger and faster than most humans. Known for her mercy, kindness, patience and compassion for all humanity, while still having her obvious limits and what modern humans would refer to as a deep ''feminist'' ideology, she became a beloved hero in her new home land, becoming a member of the famed Justice Society of America, and developing close relationships with fellow costumed heroes Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne. Contrary to the rules of the tournament, she would return to her home island many times after the war, acting as an ambassador for Tyhemiscura.

When Trevor was approached by Lady Penelope, she was still in the superhero business and happily married to the now General Trevor, the two having raised a daughter some years prior who would later go on to be a superhero herself. Surprisingly, the princess seemed to remain unchanged by age. Looking as young and beautiful as she had when she first came to the country. Trevor was unsure as to whether or not she should join the new league, what with her having a membership in the recently formed ''Justice League.'' The IR affiliate was only able to convince her to join when she told the princess of her fears about the three leaders attempting to cull all liberal thinking, ideas and opposition by any means necessary, even if those methods were amoral. Her highness's kindness and uncanny ability to negotiate with others would see to it that the league never went to far, making her an ideal leader in the field. Trevor agreed, deciding to use her signature ''Invisible Plane'' as a means of transportation, the technology of which being somewhat inspired from the scientific works of Murray League member Hawley Griffin, long before his own birth.

Captain Troy Tempest - World famous American ''Aquanaut '' and respected member of The World Aquanaut Security Patrol. (W.A.S.P) Tempest had been a member of the Aquanauts for a good number of years by the time Lady P and Trevor came to the city of Marineville in San Andreas, home to most of the organisation's staff and roster, who's job it was to explore every unknown and unexplored area of the undersea world and make diplomatic ties with the more friendly inhabitants. In a similar style to International Rescue's rivalry to the terrorist known as The Hood and Spectrum's deadly ''War of Nerves'' with the ''Mysterons from Mars'' Captain Tempest and the rest of "W.A.S.P" had been fighting a war with the ocean dwelling Aquaphibians of Titanica, a hostile race lead by the power hungry King Titan who wished to conquer the surface world as his own. With help from both the Atlantic and Pacific Atlantis' ruled by Arthur Curry and Namor McKenzie, the organisation had prevented many attacks from the kingdom. Tempest's main weapon in this war was the high tech submarine ''The Stingray.'' This submarine had been created from technology reverse engineered from the sunken WWII Japanese vessel ''Gotengo'' and aside from it's quick turning ability and defence mechanisms, the submersible also had the ability to submerge to depths of over 36,000 feet (11,000 m), allowing it to reach nearly any part of earth's ocean. Known for his square jawed handsome looks, large eyebrows, slightly above average head size, naïve and optimistic demeanour and somewhat playful arrogance and occasional childishness, Tempest had been the pilot of Stingray for years and had taken part in many interesting and perilous affairs since 1964.

When Trevor and Lady Penelope came to Marineville, they were given a warm welcome by the staff and taken to the high tech command centre where they were met by the cantankerous and short fused but kind hearted and well meaning Hoverchair bound leader of the Aquanauts, Commander Samuel Shore and his daughter, Lieutenant Atlanta Shore. After the two agents explained the situation to the Commander, Shore was at first appreciative, being understandably unwilling to give up either his his best agent or his most advanced weapon. Diana and the Commander's daughter together managed to convince Troy to at least be talked to about the offer, what with Titanicans being somewhat quite that year with only minor incidents and with the promise that Tempest would still be able to carry out his duties to protect the world, working with both "W.A.S.P" and the League. Shore begrudgingly agreed to the terms and lead them to Tempest's apartment. They were amused to find the usually talkative and wise cracking Captain so brought to silence by the sight of one of the world's most premier heroes. After having the League explained to him, tempest saw the chance of more adventures for himself and asked his Commander to take a temporary Leave of Absence while he worked with this new team. Shores gave his blessing and after tearful goodbyes from all his closest friends, tempest left the base and headed for England.

Go "Speed" Mifune – Premier (future) world champion racing driver and teen idol. This young Japanese native who's father, Daisuke, had been a member of a version of the league during the war, had dreamed of automotive racing since he was a child, watching his older brother Ken'ichi race before his eventual running away from home following a blow up with their father. ''Pops'' Mifune had therefore forbidden his second eldest son to race professionally, out of fear of losing another child. However, following several incidents with the mysterious '' Masked Racer'' and an instance of kidnapping by a rival racing team after going behind his father's back and entering in a race, Speed somehow proved his worth to his father and was given his blessing to race full time. Over the many months of that year, the 18 year old Mifune had been in many races and been in many perilous situations and adventures. All ranging from being kidnapped at gunpoint by a desperate escaped bank robber to stopping a terrorist in Monte Carlo from destroying the world's oil supply in order to get wealthy investing in rail transport. All in all though, ''Speed'' as his friends called him never let the success go to his head and remained humble into his old age. His car of choice was one designed by his father dubbed the ''Mach 5.'' The Car was, sleek, fast and inspired by the famous ''Batmobile'' in regards to it's many defensive weaponry systems which were too inspired by the cars of the now infamous ''Wacky Races'' professional racing troupe. These ''gadgets'' included a spring loaded jack to jump over dangerous obstacles, saws that could cut through any wood and a small radio controlled robot bird which could carry messages. Inspirational, Daring, somewhat liberal yet pro authority, good humoured and cheerful (despite the many deaths, near fatal experiences and general carnage he had witnessed/experienced in his career) with a strong and near unbending moral code and a notoriously fast talking voice, Mifune was well skilled in hand to hand combat as well as driving, the youngest of the team and an ideal figure to appeal to the anti parent youth.

At this point, Penelope had left the recruiting process of her own free will, leaving the work for Trevor and Tempest to complete after handing them a list of names and places. The two arrived at the Mifune household and were surprised to find that it more resembled American architecture than Asian. Mifune too seemed to belong more in American society despite his foreign nationality. He had learned a great deal of English upon becoming a pro racer (due to him travelling to many foreign lands including the UK and USA), but due to his ''fast talking'' quirk, it didn't make him that much easier to understand. After getting to the boy's level they were allowed into the house where the met the rest of the young racer's family. While the youngest child ''Kurio'' and the family's pet primate ''Sanpei'' attempted to pry some confectionery out of the patient princess, Tempest set to work explaining the league to ''Speed'', promising him that he could still continue racing, as long as he promoted the league's pro ''middle ground.'' message. Much like Commander Shore, the boy's love interest, ''Michi Shimura'', was opposed to the idea as were his parents, Mifune however saw the chance to do some real good in the world as well as make some more allies and agreed to the terms presented to him, but not before promising to check up on his family whenever possible. Mifune's father eventually agreed to let his son take the Mach 5 with him on his missions and soon he was headed towards the nearest airport with his new team-mates. (The journey was stopped once however, when it was discovered that, such was the case many times before, Kurio and Sanpei had stowed away in the trunk of the vehicle hoping to come along. After promptly returning them home, the team continued on their way.)

Arthur Fonzarelli – A former high school drop out and teenage rebel turned high school teacher in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Fonzarelli was known in his youthful and more reckless years by all who knew him as the ''purest definition of cool.'' A smooth talking, leather clad, ''too cool for rules.'' biker with a Jessie Presley style haircut and a way with women that rivalled even Jimmy Bond, this rebellious, swaggering, arrogant and vain teenager had mellowed out severely over the course of 10 years, (1955-1965) thanks in no small part to the efforts of fellow teenager, Richard Cunningham. Fonzerelli had at first pretended to brush off the youth's advances of friendship but had in time warmed to him and his family as a sort of surrogate older brother. ''Fonzie.'' as he once was known, was one of the toughest people in the city, with a great respect for anyone who dared to stand up against him. Despite his obvious cockiness, egotism and outward self-centred demeanour, he was also kindhearted and moral, standing up for anyone who happened to be bullied by those they couldn't fight themselves, perhaps adding to his already legendary popularity. He had eventually taken night classes and received his high school diploma. Over the course of the aforementioned decade, he had gone from a mechanic, to part owner of a diner which served as a popular teenage hangout, to a teacher at the same high school he graduated from, where he taught auto mechanics. Nevertheless, Fonzarelli never quite got rid of the ''cool'' persona he had developed in his youth, despite the increased empathy and deep morals he held. He was also, regrettably, unable to fully shake his more mischievous side either.

When the trio of heroes arrived in his class after school hours, he played coy and feigned disinterest in his usual swaggering manner, much to the exasperation of the other three. Eventually, Fonzerelli agreed to join them on one condition. That he be allowed impart some knowledge of his own on Mifune, perhaps desiring the prestige of tutoring a future racing star. The catch being that Milfune would have to stay at his house for four days. Trevor and Tempest were annoyed at what they saw as an act of not only unfair bargaining but also flat out kidnapping, only to be surprised when Mifune agreed to the teacher's terms. When questioned by his team mates he simply stated that any knowledge on cars would be useful to him, agreeing to let Fonzarelli teach him at a private night class for four nights. As it turned out, the 27 year old Fonzarelli soon found out that the younger 18 year old male knew more about cars than he did, what with him helping his father in his car repair shop since ''Pops'' had left his high paying job at one of Japan's biggest automotive companies. The two even exchanging knowledge along the way. This lead to Mifune's teacher releasing his willing ''hostage'' two days earlier than expected and agreeing to join the league, but not before a friendly race between the Mach 5 and Fonzerelli's motorcycle, which he took along with him.

At this point, Hyde began to notice the team's common connection through their unusual or just plain interesting vehicles. O'Malley and Satō noticed this too and seeing an obvious marketing gimmick to exploit, asked Hyde to find something rail based to be used as a mascot that could also carry the other team's vehicles. The exercise seemed pointless, but the idea of a mascot that could be marketed towards children was too tempting to give up in the eyes of the money hungry Hyde. This was not hard to do, as the answer to this potential vehicle lay between the Isle of Man and the North West of England on the rural and beautiful island of Sodor. Sodor was one of many ''pocket dimensions'' present on earth along with Sesame Street, New York, the town of "Free Country, USA" and Elwood City, Maryland. Like all these Pocket worlds that are connected with our own and have been since the dawn of the earth, Sodor had something unique about it's being. The island's famous otherworldly qualities seemed to mostly effect it's native vehicles as well as visiting one's. Giving them human sentience, human like facial features, very human personalities and even genders. The most famous of the vehicles effected by this strange force of magic, were and are the locomotives and rolling stock of the North Western Railway (Or the North Western region of British Railways as it was officially known.) run and controlled since 1915 by the strict and meticulous, yet obese ''Hat'' family. The 1st of these, ''Sir Toppum Hat'', had passed away in the 1950s, naming his son Charles as his successor. Despite dieselisation on the mainland and the elimination of steam, Sodor still chose to retain engines, (some that had been working on the line since the beginning) that ran mostly on steam, due to a deep fondness for them and deep interest from rail enthusiasts who wanted to see what Charles Hat referred to as ''real engines.'' When the team was commissioned by the three leaders to borrow an engine from the region, they were unsure of what to expect when they arrived on September 19th, seeing as the sentient machine chosen would also technically serve as a team member. The island's mysticism lasting only with machines that remained there for a good number of years. Hat allowed them to borrow at least one engine for league purposes, in a joint ownership agreement that would expire when the team was dissolved, giving the engine automatically back to the railway, if there was anything left to return.

At first, focus was on the main line roster with the likes of Hank Stanier (NWR No:3, LMS Stanier "Black 5" ), Jim Hughes (NWR No:5, L&YR Hughes Class 28 with an experimental pony truck) and Ed Pettigrew. (NWR No:2, Furness Railway K2) All resolutely rejected the offers presented to them, having grown weary of government work since the dark days of INGSOC and Big Brother. However, Pettigrew being an understanding and helpful sort, recommended that the four scout out the branch line that serviced the towns of Knapford and Ffarquhar as well as a few others in between. The team arrived at the branch line's sheds at Ffarquhar that evening, only to find out from the town's stationmaster that all of the engines of the line were already at work. Feeling tired, the team were about to give up and head back to the Bed and Breakfast they had been booked into, when Trevor heard the sound of a locomotive backing into the yard mixed with what sounded like tired whistling, followed by a flash of deep blue out of the corner of her eye. Seeming to recognise this flash of colour, she convinced Mifune to come with her to a siding next to the sheds where a plume of steam could be seen rising into the sky. Upon further investigation, the two found, dosing on the siding, the League's final recruit.

Tom Billington (NWR No:1, LB&SCR E2 Tank Engine.) - The first officially purchased locomotive for the network back in 1915, Billington had been living and operating on Sodor for nearly 52 full years of his working life. He had helped to connect the line to the mainland during it's earliest days and had been kept around permanently due to a bureaucratic mix up that had sent him there in the first place and his young crew marrying some local girls. He had been promoted to the station pilot at Vicarstown afterwards but soon grew bored and ambitious, wanting to see the world outside his yard and do more important things. After several incidents in 1923 involving getting pulled along with the NWR's charter express pulled by it's number 4 and A0 pacific Gordon Gresley, leaving his first passenger train behind at a station and nearly crashing when pulling his first goods train, he was transferred to Wellsworth to shunt goods trains. Sometime later, Jim Hughes crashed into a field of cows on his first day on the railway, following faults with his wooden Brake blocks. Billington had been the first to respond to the accident, working for the entire day to help clear the mess before taking Hughes back to the sheds where Sir Toppum, the then managing director, had granted the E2 his own branch line and two coaches, all of which were bestowed to him the next year. Over the next 43 years, (even through the era of INGSOC, where the island had been more of less left alone aside from a few telescreens and times when the government called upon the railway to do some occasional jobs for them) Billington continued to have a series of seemingly unimportant, but certainly interesting adventures involving a race with a local bus, getting stuck in a snow drift and an incident with fish that came close to ending the engine's existence. Billington's most relevant exploit had been seven years prior when, due to the meddling of a cleaner with his controls, he had crashed into the former stationmaster's home during breakfast. Rather than standard repairs to the damaged locomotive, Charles Hat had chosen to give Billington a rebuild. Flattening the engine's running board, thereby removing his downsweep, increasing his capacity for coal and water and allowing him to make slightly longer journeys. Despite his seemingly venerable age, Billington still spoke in much the same tone as he had when he was 13 years old and subsequently held on to the fussy, stubborn, cheeky and childish, yet kind, helpful, enthusiastic and curious personality that he had possessed for decades and which enabled him to endear to both people and engines alike, letting him build up strong relationships quite easily.

Billington had just returned from a long day's work delivering supplies to farms and factories as well as milk to the local dairy. He was at first annoyed when his sleep was disturbed, but soon lightened his mood upon recognising the princess. He recalled how during the war, a select few members of The Justice Society had come to Sodor to expose a hidden ring of Nazi saboteurs with Trevor being one of them. The two quickly caught up before Trevor introduced the tank engine to Mifune. Billington's driver's daughter was a fan of Mifune's and her father had told the locomotive some of things about the young racer. The two quickly grew to befriend each other as a result of their various charms and qualities. As well as their own experiences. This took some time leading Tempest and Fonzerelli to check on their team mates. Upon meeting Billington and talking to him themselves, the engine's charm and general pleasantness won them over and they determined to get him into the League. Surprisingly, Billington was the one who needed the most time to think things over, being extremely loyal to the railway and his own line in particular. The next day, after consulting with shed mates Percival Avonside (NWR No:6, Unknown Origin) and Tobias Holden, (NWR No:7, LNER J70) Billington decided to join the team after the day's work was over, with his shed mates taking over his branch line duties in his absence. A female, single carriage rail car named Daisy Metro-Cammel (NWR: D1, BR Class 101) would take over a majority of the passenger runs. The engine's companions begged him to stay, but a desire to see the world had clearly overridden his usual sense of judgement. Hat gave his blessing and wished his engine good luck. Hyde on the other hand was furious that an engine with such a limited fuel capacity had been chosen instead of the powerful main liner he had so hoped for, but resigned himself to what he had to work with. Since Billington's usual crew had opted _not_ to join their engine on the journey, two trained British government workers took their place. It was also decided that in every new environment the team entered, Billington would be repainted to blend into his surroundings. Three flat bed trucks were also gifted to the engine, so when there was some area where the road and water vehicles could not travel, Billington could carry them himself and take them to where they were needed. Along with the trucks, 3 coaches were also donated to the team by the railway so that they could travel in comfort during the previously mentioned scenarios as well as bond during long journeys. The government also make plans to supply the engine's need for coal and water constantly.

With the team assembled, A public unveiling of the League was held in London with much fanfare. As the three leaders had hoped, most of the civilian crowd were made up of young men and women, who soon got a chance to speak to all the members. Many were won over, others were not so trusting. The press began to swarm the new league with questions about their purpose. Fonzerelli's answer was the one that got published the most. As he put it, the team existed to ''Help the world cool off.'' Of course, more accurate description would have been ''to combat international communism, dismantle terrorist groups, fight juvenile delinquency and repel violent revolution.'' Unaware that they had been formed to discourage _all_ forms of rebellion, violent or otherwise, the team celebrated their first day, looking forward to the adventures that lay ahead.


	2. First Missions

For a week after their formation, the team found themselves temporarily located in the small village of Camberwick Green in the rural, south English county of Trumptonshire, in a boarding house awaiting further orders while their first missions were being arranged. The four human members were booked into one room together while Billington, who for obvious reasons couldn't fit inside the lodgings due to his size, was housed inside of an old engine shed in a yard usually reserved for an old steam engine from the neighbouring village of Chigley. While Trevor, Mifune, Tempest and Fonzerelli lived in the boarding house however, they made sure to hold team meetings at the shed, so that the locomotive would not be kept out of the loop, as at this point they regarded him as a friend and it gave them an excuse to get more adequate elbow room that they could not find in their own cramped quarters. Soon the peacefulness of the village started to wear on the team. Their vehicles had been placed in storage ready for shipping and deprived of both car and motorcycle, Mifune and Fonzerelli were soon overcome with unbearable boredom. Tempest too had become irritated and complained insensately to no one in particular over what may have befallen his submarine. Only the ever patient Diana remained cool despite the _clear_ impatience of her team mates beginning to wear on her, as by day five, even Billington was starting to become spiritless over a lack of work. It wasn't just the team who were "suffering" either. While at first, the inhabitants of the village were excited about the prospect of the new league staying with them, (and indeed each individual member became quite popular in and friendly with the villagers) the team's presence brought tourists who were less respectful of the community and it's people, littering, loitering and invading the personal privacy of some of the residents. (Including, ironically, the town gossip) so when the League finally got their telegram of orders from Head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, MI6's "M" and Chief of the Japanese Secret Service Taku Tanaka, both parties were secretly glad to be rid of each other.

The team sailed off from Dover the following Monday, September 28th, with Hyde, O'Malley and Satō there to see them on their way. The team and a majority of their vehicles were placed in the same government ship that they were to travel on, with the exception of the submarine, which Tempest had insisted on following the ship in, due to the stagnation he had experienced over the last week, which simply wasn't desirable for a man who was used to nearly constant action. O'Malley agreed to this, as he felt that in this position would allow the captain to keep both the ship and the team safe from the now very real threat of assassination. After bidding the team farewell, the three leaders began formulating the League's future mission in their minds, before transferring those ideas to their respective intelligence agencies later on. Aware of the fact that, thanks in no small part to Lady Penelope's choices for league membership, the team were not entirely the perfect yes men they had hoped for, as the team were somewhat aware of their true reason for being. the newly constructed League meanwhile, went along with their orders, having many missions and exploits over the remainder of that year and into September of 1968. These adventures included the following.

Assisting Eastern European countries in fighting off Soviet expansion efforts - Despite their annexation of a large portion of East Europe over the many years since it's formation, there were some countries in Eastern Europe that continued to resist being swallowed up by the ever growing Soviet Union. In particular the kingdoms of Ruritania and Arendelle (supposed homeland of the ''Ice Queen'' during a more mystical time in Europe) and the independent republics of Kravta Nova and Moldovakia. All counties had railway lines leading up to stations in all their major cities, which made access easy for Billington who could then leave the individual vehicles in a siding to be transferred to other locations to be used later, only this time the engine was carrying more than just the team's transportation. When the league arrived on the outskirts of Ruritania, they were told that they would be delivering supplies and weapons to the countries to combat the invading Soviet forces. these came in box cars pulled by the E2, that were then transferred to the other vehicles. Each member worked under the cover of night so as to not be caught in their work by the communist forces. who even now had sent out spies to expose any sort of outside aid. This was no issue for Trevor or Tempest, as the former was able to air drop the arms caches to villages and towns most affected by the invasion, while the latter delivered his loads to vital ports in Arendelle, Moldovakia and Krafta Nova. The same was not so true for Fonzerelli and Mifune. Due to treacherous and antiquated road systems in the less developed parts of the country, they found themselves working together more often than they would later on in the League's tenure. Billington would take the Mach 5 and Fonzerelli's cycle on two flatbeds with both drivers already at the wheel, until they three found a spot where the road met the rails near their drop off points, whereupon the engine would slow down considerably, allowing his team-mates to safely drive off the trucks onto the road and quickly leave the weaponry where it would be picked up safely without it being intercepted. To be prepared for any eventuality, Billington and his crew were left on guard to whistle an alarm in case any soviet troops discovered their location. Eventually their efforts were discovered and the team more often than not, found themselves in direct conflict with Red Army forces. While they fought valiantly, the league were eventually called back from the war zone to avoid possible casualties. In the end, their mission turned out to be only a partial success, with Ruritania and Moldovakia eventually falling under the fist of the USSR. Despite these losses, the league took pride in at least thwarting the invasions of Krafta Nova and Arendelle and keeping the countries free from Communist influences. (September to December of 1967) Indeed the two countries would remain free and democratic well into the early 21st century with both now being world leaders in the fields of human rights, marriage equality and the legalisation of recreational drug use. Ruritania and Moldovakia eventually regained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Land between the two nations soon became disputed territory however, due to disagreements between the military bureaucracies of both countries. The land would be claimed by neither however, as it would soon be bought by a handful of American billionaires to create the ethically questionable states of Svenborgia and Grenyarnia in 1999, before their creations were covered up by the Multi-Billionaires to to keep out the poor and destitute. To this day, the existences of the grotesque states are obscured by an everlasting, artificial fog and are known only to the UN, S.H.I.E.L.D, their own respective governments and the extremely wealthy. Despite many attempts by the United Nations to have the countries governments dissolved, they unfortunately remain in good standing.

Visiting and combating youthful offenders in Beanotown, Northumberland and similar duties - After their escapades in Europe, the League took time off from their duties to celebrate the holidays back home. At this point the government had sold their likenesses to several companies with the permission of the five agents and the team quickly found themselves as the subject of comic books, propaganda posters, toys, advertisements, etc. Not to mention many public appearances at American, British and Canadian schools, shopping malls and (naturally) railway stations. As a result, they became increasingly popular and influential and their victories against the USSR were being exploited to the most possible levels. As hoped, this influence was felt by young citizens ranging in the ages of 6 to 19. In past cases, the team would have been hated for their actions, but their strong ethics shown in Europe and desire for peace and freedom won even certain sects of the ''Beatnik'' movement over.

In early February, 1968, Hyde gave the League orders to return to Britain. Upon their arrival, they were immediately dispatched to the urban community of Beanotown in Northumberland. The town was located close to the English border with Scotland and held an _infamous_ and downright horrific reputation in regards to it's children. Despite the parents of these children using the more "conventional" methods of discipline at the time (that in all likelihood only worsened the problem and would _definitely_ be frowned upon in today's world of "Child Psychology") on an almost daily basis, the actions of the younger citizens had, despite constant attempts at putting them in their rightful place, become not only rebellious, but at times sociopathic. The most notable cases being the students of Bash Street Elementary School, (Mainly Class 2B although most of the notorious children attended the school) and two children in particular who seemed to be the ringleaders of the uncontrollable minors. The first being Dennis Ennis, a burly, young boy with thick black hair that grew in spikes, a seemingly perpetual scowl and a red and black striped jumper who, often accompanied by his faithful dog, seemed to derive a near psychotic pleasure out of tormenting the child of his next door neighbours as well as causing general mayhem throughout the town. The second one being Minerva MacMinks. A young girl around Ennis' age with similar mannerisms, similar clothes, red hair and a Tam O'Shanter to match. (There was a third child, a boy about the age of the previous two in a chequered shirt who seemed to make a trio with Ennis and the Girl, but his mannerisms were nowhere near the level of psychopathy displayed by his playmates.) The League chose to arrive under the power of their own transportation, not wanting to risk the safety of their locomotive should the reputation of the town's children turn out to be more than a mere exaggeration. Tempest was the only exception due to Beanotown being inland. Upon crossing the town limits and arriving in the town square, they soon found themselves ambushed by the children's "Welcoming Committee", before being attacked by a series of "prank weapons" and decomposing vegetables and fruit. Trevor's commanding voice, coupled with Fonzerelli's smooth talking managed to save the League the humiliation of becoming the children's captives. They were in fact left stunned and bewildered at being reigned in so effortlessly, after their guardian's and the local authority's inability to do so in the past. this gave the team the advantage they needed, much to the delight of the Prime Minister who feared that someday the under aged hooligans would grow up to be a new generation of political anarchists and even revolutionaries. Billington arrived secretly that night and was later reported to be "very glad" that his friends had made some minor progress. In time, the League began the work of sowing the seeds of change into their young charge's minds. Outwardly, the children were at first apprehensive and seemingly unwilling to cooperate with or even remotely listen to the league, continuing to play their usual brand of ''mischief'' on them whenever the chance was available. Mifune and Tempest in particular began to wonder if they were actually making any progress. Trevor, who had become the team's field leader due to the leadership skills she had acquired during her Royal Training as an infant, encouraged them to go on trying. Aside from the princess, Fonzerelli was also determined to continue working with the children given his own past and upbringing. These "kids", in his mind, had it much better off in terms of parental figures than he had done at their age and during a public presentation in the town square, related his own experiences to BSE's Class 2B and Class 1A. This was followed by a speech from Mifune and Tempest, who believed that any person could change for the better and told the children that they _could_ do and be better than they were and the most likely consequences that would occur to them if they persisted in their current actions. Perhaps it was these ''Inspirational'' speeches that made waves with those pupils as for the next fortnight, Beanotown experienced two of the most peaceful weeks in the town's history. Mifune, upon visiting the Ennis and MacMinks households was pleased to hear from the parents that even the behaviour of their own offspring had changed. Seemingly for the better.

During the latter half of those fourteen days, the League's influence over the children caused them to also demonstrate a good sense of nobility after assisting in the clean up of neighbouring rival, Dandytown, following an unexpected and ill prepared for attack by British super criminal and member of the "Sinister Seven", Sylvester Jenkins. The League had heard of the attack over the evening news and had rushed to the scene not only to fight, but to to help innocent civilians to safety. Jenkins, possessing no real powers or significant fighting skills, (due to relying mostly on his technical prowess in the field of gadgetry) had soon been overpowered by Mifune, Tempest and Fonzerelli but before the team could restrain the "Gadgeteer" further, Jenkins had pulled out a small remote control device, pressing a button which in turn sounded a distress signal summoning fellow Seven members, the Gas Man, The Shark, The Mad Mechanoid and Muto the Multiform. (The team's leader, Limbo the Unknown and fellow team mate The Living Totem were away on other business at the time) With the assistance of local heroes, mainly Beanotown's teenage "speedster" William Whizz, (who seemed to have near identical powers to American heroes Jay Garrick and Barry Allen) and visiting child vigilante William Grange aka "The Cat", the team did what they could to repel the attack. The Mechanoid was quickly incapacitated by Trevor, but even the veteran hero found herself overwhelmed by the seven's powerful assault and was thankful for the assistance of the two British heroes. (It is worth mentioning that shortly after the battle, Trevor suggested the two apply for membership into the "Teen Titans", but both politely declined). Mifune took out Muto, using the villain's ego to his advantage by daring him to turn into a tree. Muto did so and the young driver soon made use of the Mach 5's saws, cutting the villain to the point of serious injury. Captain Tempest too made a good impression, luring The Shark into a nearby lake where, in case of emergency, Stingray had been stored. Overwhelmed by the submarine's superior weapons, the aquatic criminal had no alternative but to surrender. The most "pathetic" display came from Fonzerelli. After his usual combat skills proved ineffective against the intangible foe, Fonzerelli resorted to threatening The Gas Man with a cigarette lighter, the former rebel was laughed off by the criminal, who was then defeated by Whizz with a common household vacuum cleaner. Noticing Fonzerelli's embarrassment, Whizz claimed later at a press conference that the vacuum had been the biker's idea rather than his own. As a gesture of good will towards their rivals, The people of Beanotown, including their children, the team and the cat, helped with clearing away the rubble which was piled into several goods wagons before being transported to the nearby scrap yard by Billington. After those weeks were over, the team departed from Beanotown station with their vehicles once again being transported by rail and with the children there to bid them an uncharacteristically tearful farewell. In time, the children became adults and _most_ went on to live rich and fulfilling lives. After graduating high school Ennis Married MacMinks, who later went on to become a world famous hockey player. Her husband would have an accident during his college years, which would lead him to start a career as the superhero "The Shrike" before his tragic death in 2011 at the hands of the most recent incarnation of "The Joker." It should be noted that the following month, The League had a similar exploit in the American Mid Western town of Birtchwood, Minnesota where they were ordered to collect information on the area. This was due to the town's child residents who could take almost perfect care of themselves, converse and think like adults and seemed perfectly capable of going about their daily lives without much parental supervision. This secretly worried a handful of US politicians at the time, who feared that if such self reliance should spread to the rest of America's youth, it would most likely give way to a more anarchistic society in the future. After spending a week in the town and getting to know the children and their families however, all 5 members of the League concluded that were was no risk of this happening and promptly left the community, to the same departure they had experienced in Beanotown.

Protecting Tokyo, Japan from A.I.M. attacks - Shortly after the team's brief stay in Birtchwood, the team were taking a small vacation in the rustic town of Gravity Falls, Oregon when the quintet were summoned by Tanaka and Satō back to Japan via telegram. Mifune was naturally ecstatic, as this would allow him him to visit his family for the first time since the previous Christmas. Billington had been granted permission by the local rail company to shunt goods wagons in the town's rail yard. Upon reading the message for himself, the tank engine noticed another paragraph previously neglected by his colleagues, which turned out to be a rather informally written "P.S." pleading them to come soon and wishing them ''a comfortable journey." The add on, it turned out, had been penned by the atomic powered, perpetual child robot "Tetsuwan Atom." (The Mighty Atom) Known in most English speaking nations by the less flattering moniker of "Astro Boy." Designed and built by former Japanese League member and former Minister of Science, Doctor Umataro Tenma following the untimely death of his 9 year old son Tobio, the android had eventually been abandoned by his mentally unstable creator and sold off to a robotic circus, before being rescued and ''adopted'' by the kindly, large nosed Professor Ochanomizu, who later took Tenma's position at the Ministry of Science. Since that time, Professor Ochanomizu, a major proponent of "Robot Rights'', had been responsible for passing laws in Japan that enabled Atom's schooling and later the creation of robotic parents as well as his younger sister "Uran." Upon their voyage back to Japan and arrival at Shinagawa Station and after marvelling at the city which was and still is many centuries more advanced technologically than what they were used to in their own homelands, (Mifune not being stunned with awe in the slightest but finding amusement in that of his friends) The League were soon met by Tanaka, Satō, Ochanomizu and the whole robot family, including Atom himself. Mifune's family and friends were also present and reportedly swept the racer off his feet with their affection. The child robots and Mifune's brother swarmed the team in fascination, nearly overloading them with questions before Ochanomizu lead them away to the robot family's home. Once there, Ochanomizu explained that over the past few weeks Tokyo had been subjected to a series of indirect terrorist attacks by the organisation known as A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) A group of science-terrorists, known also as the ''Beekeepers'' due to their unusual attire, founded by former enemy of american superhero Captain Steven Rogers, Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker during the second world war. Baron Von Strucker had founded A.I.M as a weapons branch for his main organisation "HYDRA", developing advanced weaponry for it's forces during the war. Even after HYDRA's defeat, A.I.M had lived on as it's own entity. It's new purpose was to overthrow all world governments by technological means and establish total dominion over the planet. The previous September, the same month as the League's formation, the previous leader's of A.I.M had transformed one of it's technicians, a man by the name of George Tarleton, into a grotesque mobile human super computer they dubbed the "Mobile Organism Designed Only for Computing", the acronym for which need not be mentioned. The being that had once been Tarleton had rebelled against it's creators, slaughtering them and declaring itself the de facto leader of A.I.M. Trevor and Tempest who, due to their experience in leadership had become the duel commander's of the league, naturally questioned why the team had been summoned when Japan had so many of it's own heroes to defend itself, citing robotic heroes such as Atom as examples. Before Tanaka, Satō or Ochanomizu could reply, Atom spoke up, revealing that he had asked his Prime Minister to summon the League to Japan after hearing of their exploits. He explained that A.I.M had created a device that was putting many machines under their control, causing them to attack humans seemingly at random. As a result, the anti Robot sentiments that were already growing in Japan at the time were beginning to rise. The league found themselves unable to turn down the hopeful robot children and chose to provide their assistance. Their efforts were mostly non violent to begin with. Usually involving the capture and deactivation of rouge machines, before sending them to the Ministry of Science HQ where Professor Ochanomizu and Atom attempted to find the reason behind their strange behaviour. As it happened, the programming of the robots had been completely rewritten due to some sort of computer virus reverse engineered by A.I.M, causing them to become aggressive towards humans, leading to the chaos and injuries that had sparked off so many rallies of prejudice against them. In time, the professor was able to create an anti-virus program that reverted the infected robots back to their original functions, but tension remained even after all of the robots had been cured,.

Three days later, A.I.M made their next move against Japan. On March 20th, every television and radio signal in Tokyo was hijacked, with Tarleton's hideous, mutated form on every screen and his twisted, gravelly voice on every station. The League's interference had angered him greatly and he intended to have vengeance against them. He informed the citizens that while they had been sleeping that night, his forces had set up an energy shield around the city. Outside interference by any organisation or superhero was now impossible and anyone who attempted to leave the city would be vaporized upon impact with the shield. Only identification carrying members of A.I.M would be able to enter and exit without trouble and the terrorist group intended to send an army to take over Tokyo the very next day. The city fell into panic almost at once, with some going as far as to suggest that all A.I. robots should be surrendered to the terrorists along with the League, blaming their incarceration on their interference. While this panic was confined to a small minority of the population, it was still enough for the cities superheroes to show involvement and while Atom, along with the likes of space hero "Iron Sharp " and teenage cyborg Joe Shimamura (joined by his "Cyborg 009" troupe) attempted to restore order to the city with assistance from Mifune, the rest of the league met with Governor of Tokyo: Ryokichi Minobe, Professor Ochanomizu, Police Inspector Yuudai Tawashi, Tanaka and Satō to discuss what should be done. It was quickly pointed out however, that Trevor's superhuman and some might say _godlike_ durability would be enough for her to escape the energy shield and shut it off from the outside, something that Tarleton, despite his super computer like brain, had seemingly neglected. Trevor on the other hand pointed out that should this be done, A.I.M would more than likely send an army large enough to raise Tokyo to the ground. One that even the league and the local heroes would have a hard time dealing with and would in all probability overwhelm them as well as both her aircraft and Tempest's submersible eventually. Ochanomizu decided therefore to upgrade the team's less combat ready vehicles with non lethal weaponry to combat the A.I.M forces once they arrived. This included Mifune's car, Fonzerelli's bike and Billington. The Mach 5 had many components that would have been great in close combat, but none that would be useful for ranged attacks. For this reason, Professor Ochanomizu rightfully upgraded the auto mobile with special guns on the hood and trunk that fired special "Mercy Bullets." Powerful, bullet shaped tranquillisers developed by American Science hero, Clark Savage Jr, who had a strong stance against killing his foes. It seemed that Savage had imparted the method of the bullets' creation to a younger Ochanomizu, prior to the outbreak of the war. Fonzerelli saw his cycle given similar treatment, with a mercy bullet projecting gun turret mounted between the handlebars. When Billington was moved to the ministry for his temporary upgrades, it was assumed outright that he would be equipped with the same weaponry. Instead, the tank engine woke up in the ministry building to find two unusual cannons attached to his tanks and cables leading into his cab that were in turn, attached to two large batteries within. Ochanomizu explained to Billington that he had outfitted him with special electro canons. These would fire powerful EMP blasts that would disable any electrical equipment they came in contact with. Billington was reluctant at first, expressing concerns that the weaponry would sustain damage and malfunction due to the steam. The resulting moisture potentially causing it to short circuit. Ochanomizu put these worries to rest by pointing out that the engine would be moved, not under his own power, to a siding outside the main city buildings where he could get a good view of the approaching A.I.M air crafts, and inform his crew of where to fire next. The purpose of the canons was the take out as many airborne machines as possible, forcing the troops inside to parachute out and be picked off by Mifune and Fonzerelli. Any crafts that evaded the electromagnetic beams would be picked off by Trevor while Tempest patrolled the docks.

The plans were put into action that midnight and as Mifune and Fonzerelli drove their vehicles into parts of the city less crowded by tall buildings, Tempest got ready to patrol the harbour in Stingray and a nervous, black painted E2 was moved to a siding by a more robotic engine, Trevor began work locating and eventually disposing of the shield generator. After only just getting past the shield it'self, the Amazon princess found the camera like projector mostly buried from view in a mound of earth, before crushing it in her bare hands. After which, she signalled Tempest via speaker phone to begin his patrol. At 06:52 AM, Stingray's radar detected several oncoming vessels approaching the harbour. Getting in contact with his team mates, (2 of which were high on caffeine and one that had to be woken by his crew) Tempest called for the rest of the league to "watch the skies." A mere minute after this message was uttered, a dozen dark grey, monstrous air crafts were seen in the air above Tokyo. They were flying well above where the shield had been, wrongfully presuming it to still be there. It therefore caught the invaders off guard to suddenly find themselves beginning to get picked off by an unseen aircraft piloted by Prince while others were picked off by an EMP. This in turn caused the panicked fighters inside to parachute earlier than originally planned, into the range off two tranquilliser shooting guns that seemed to hit them wherever they were. Those who had come by sea, upon reaching the mouth of the harbour, quickly found themselves at the mercy of a submarine that always managed to stay out of their range and torpedoed them when they tried to escape. This good fortune did not last long, as two A.I.M submarines managed to "sandwich"Stingray between them and run it aground, and a squadron of "Bee Keepers" with machine guns managed to disable Billington's EMP canons and make it down to the streets where they began to take hostages. This forced Prince and Tempest to exist their vehicles and assist Mifune and Fonzerelli in the city, not that _they_ minded this, although tempest was furious about what the "cowardly idiots" had done to his vessel. The squadron was large enough to be a threat and the team more than welcomed help from the more local heroes. Atom, of course, among them. The last of the concious A.I.M agents attempted to flee the battlefield, only to be ensnared by Trevor's lasso of truth. The team demanded to know the location of Tarleton but the footsoldier, knowing full well the abilities of the golden rope, instead bit into a cyanide capsule to prevent himself from confessing. The fight ended with the A.I.M force's capture the league physically exhausted with the exemptions of Trevor and Billington, the latter of which's tanks had been punctured by bullets. Mild damage had also been inflicted upon Stingray due it being run ashore and the Mach 5 was missing two wheels. Fonzerelli's bike and Trevor's jet remained mostly unscathed but with Billington rendered useless and two vital vehicles out of commission, it was clear that it would be some time before the team could leave for their next mission. Luckily, the Ministry of Science and the robots of the city were more than happy to lend a hand fixing the damage and seeing the team as heroes, the people of Tokyo held a celebration in their honour two days later. Certain guests also attended the event, including off duty members of the Justice League, The Hat and Mifune Families, Atom, his family and school friends, Agent (and future director) of SHIELD Nicholas Fury, Satō, O'Malley, Hyde and two members of The Avengers. Dr. Donald Blake, who in reality was the Norse god "Thor" reincarnated/disguised as a human and suffering, at the time, from amnesia and the recently returned Steve Rogers who had spent the years following the war in suspended animation in the Arctic before being discovered and revived by the Avengers in 1964. Bedecked in his star spangled scale mail and costume and carrying with him his signature Vibranium shield, he congratulated the League for a job well done and shared a touching reunion with Trevor, who had been unable to see the Captain after his revival for multiple reasons. Friendships were both forged and strengthened that day and all in attendance were said to have enjoyed themselves. Following the repairs of Billington, Stingray and the Mach 5 by March 24th, The League was able to return to active duty and left Tokyo to sounds of appreciation from the inhabitants. They by no means left empty handed though, as Professor Ochanomizu and Atom had left them one last farewell present. A "videophone" that allowed the League to contact the robot hero at any time should they ever need his assistance in _any_ situation. this was done partially as a sign of appreciation for the League's actions, but also because Atom had been made an honorary member by Satō for his help in the matter. The Team appreciated the gift but were uncertain that in would ever be useful. to remain on the safe side, they stored it away in Billington's cab for when they _might_ be in need of it, unaware of the role the phone would play during the League's darkest hour.


	3. The Latverian Job

The League's popularity with both the young and the old had sky-rocketed by the time April of 1968 rolled around. A number of young groups and teenagers still distrusted them somewhat due to their government employ, but in terms the main populous, they were almost universally trusted as heroes. Everything from magazine covers and comic books to cartoons and toys, board games and even clothes bore their likenesses and the money was only coming in faster than ever for both the team's funding and the people behind them. The events in Tokyo had only strengthened this idea and Patrick O'Mally, George Hyde and Eisaku Satō had become entirely convinced that the team would remain together for quite a few years. Their goal of course, as stated before, being to eventually recreate the level of western patriotism and unquestioning government trust that had been so prominent in the 1950s, with the League as their own personal propaganda tools. They might very well have succeeded in this regard, had it not been for several events that would bring their dreams to a grinding halt. The first of these was something so commonplace for celebrities at that point that to begin with, the beginning of the end of the League went completely unnoticed. The League had been stationed in New York City at The Tipton Hotel (this time in their own separate rooms.) while their engine preformed shunting demonstrations for tourists at Arlington Yard on Staten Island. The first sign of things to come came one morning when an enraged Trevor called the room numbers of her team mates, _demanding_ an emergency meeting at Arlington Yard. Shaken up by the anger of one of their field leaders, the team headed for their transport and set off towards Staten Island. Captain Tempest however, being the team's co-leader, instructed Mifune and Fonzereli to lag behind while he went ahead of them, in order to attempt to calm the Irate Amazon down. Mifune of course who's respect for authority was well known, was more than happy to follow this order. perhaps also not wanting to face the angry superhero in her current state. This attitude annoyed the more free thinking Fonzerelli, who pleaded the for the young racer to think for himself, arguing that Trevor wanted _every_ member of the team at the yard and showing up late would only worsen her mood. Mifune was reluctant to go against Tempest at first, but soon agreed.

Upon reaching the yard a few minutes behind Tempest, they found the Amazon Princess clad in full superhero gear, pacing up at down in front of an equally wary and uncharacteristically quiet Billington, with Tempest standing nearby unsure of what to say. Upon recognising her colleagues she instantly stopped pacing. Before either of the two could utter a syllable, she threw a stack of five different American newspapers into their hands and instructed them to read the front pages of each. These papers were as follows. The New Frontiersman, The Weekly Spyglass, The Liberty Tree, The Los Angeles Suit and The Boston Telegraph. Each paper had a variation on the same fraudulent rumour. Ever since Trevor and Tempest had taken it upon themselves to lead and speak for the team together, they had been making many public appearances together in order to speak to the press to explain goings on in the League. Speculation began to spread that Trevor was in fact having a secret affair with The Aquanaut behind her husband's back. Now it seemed that this rumour, as false as it was, had spread to some of America's less reputable publications, causing the super heroine to lose her usually strong patience. The League understood their friend's anger perfectly and Tempest found himself sharing the same temperament. The two leaders appeared outside of city hall on April 3rd with both General Trevor and Atlanta Shore (Tempest's own bride to be) appearing alongside them, denying the allegations and demanding that the papers retract the stories. The public backlash against the publishers was so strong that 3 days later, the stories were retracted and official apologies were issued to both leaguers. Both wished to have time to recover, but were given only 4 days to do so before the team was inevitably shipped off to yet another trilogy of missions* beginning on April 10th.

Preventing the Latverian conquest of Germanic nations - So quick was the first of these new missions given of course, that Trevor had little time to gather her wits after her ordeal. She quickly regained composure however, what with being so used to having little time to herself between one adventure and another during her time on both the Justice Society and Justice League, who were almost always in demand whenever disaster stuck in the world. During and long after the 1960s, a certain number of countries across the globe found themselves right in the heart of a number of superhuman related battles and events. Some even had the privilege or misfortune to be ruled by said super humans, ranging from the technologically advanced African tribal nation of Wakanda, ruled by a number of champions that bore the name "Black Panther'', to the middle eastern nation of Kahndaq. Formerly protected by former hero turned super villain and one of American superhero William Batson's most dangerous enemies, the ancient Egyptian known as Teth-Adam. Many of these countries were often third world wastelands or terrorist states, but one Balkan kingdom in particular had it worse off that most. Sharing a border with Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Symkaria and surrounded by both the Carpathian and Malhela mountain ranges on its northern and southern sides, The Kingdom of Latveria outwardly resembled something out of 1940s rural Tomainia, with a public attitude that mirrored that of Britain's populous during its ''Airstrip One'' period.

The people of this small, yet powerful and militaristic country lived in a seemingly brainwashed state of both admiration, forced joy and fear, due entirely to to their tyrannical leader and monarch, notorious super villain and enemy of American superhero and adventurer Dr. Reed Richards and his "Fantastic Four" team, Dr. Victor Von Doom. A former friend of Richards, Doom's full history is too large and complicated to be explained in its entirety. Born in a Romani camp outside the Latverian capital of Hassenstadt, (remained Doomstadt after Doom's mother following the king's rise to power), the young Doom had long sought to increase his knowledge in the arts of both science and magic, in order to save his mother's soul from a deal with one of the many catalogued "Lords of Hell." In his young adulthood he had travelled to Henegman, New York to attend the prestigious "Empire State University" where he met and befriended Richards and another FF founder, Benjamin Grimm. Doom soon thrust himself into creating what he referred to as an "Astral Projection Machine" with which he hoped to free his mother from hell. Richards saw the fault in his friend's calculations and attempted to warn him of the danger. Doom's arrogance and drive caused him to reject the warning and upon testing the machine, it exploded, scaring its creator horrifically. Doom was expelled from the university shortly afterwards and was sent back to Latveria in disgrace. Now choosing to travel the world, he soon began the lengthy process of becoming a master of the magical arts, studying under such great magi as Morgan le Fey and visiting such places of magical education as the "Invisible Collage", he sought out a secret order of monks in the Himalayas that were rumoured to be greatly skilled both technologically and magically. Upon locating this Monk's temple, the exhausted, half starved doom was taken in by the order who in the space of five years, taught the young Latverian all that they could.

Surpassing his masters in the arts of both Technology and magic, Doom was eventually named as their leader. Upon learning of Dr. Richards' new experimental space vessel in 1960, one that could supposedly travel to other star systems, Doom became furious. Wishing to be rid of both human emotion and pain, he ordered the monks to construct a suit of titanium armor filled with a variety of gadgets and devices that would sever him physically as well as emotionally from the mortal world. This was a successful achievement, but one that left Doom more scared than before, as he put the mask portion of the armor on well before it had properly cooled. Returning to Latveria clad in both his new armor (powered by solar energy) and a cloak of bright green, Doom used his powers to kill the then King Vladimir Fortunov and exile the remains of the royal family, declaring himself king in the process and taking residence in the former kings castle. (Now appropriately renamed "Castle Doom") This new dominion now established, Doom set his sights on the world, believing, like many before him, that through his "strong leadership" humanity would prosper. The fate of the space rocket the following year along with that of its crew, made up of Richards, his fiancée Susan Storm, her then teenage brother Jonathan Storm and of course Benjamin Grimm, is well known to all and need not be brought up. The four would soon find themselves pitted against Doom early into their careers and the monarch quickly came to regard them as his nemeses and vice versa. He also became deeply involved in the superhero and villain communities, joining various villain troupes and butting heads with a good many of the heroes that based themselves in New York throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s. Though the "Fantastic Four"would try many times to bring Doom to justice, the dictator would always seem to slip from their grasp one way or another. To doubly reduce the Team's chances of apprehending him, Doom created a series of intelligent sentient automatons with his likeness that could be used to carry out plans and tasks in place of the real thing, while he was elsewhere. (Usually back in Latveria.)

Doom had tried multiple times to conquer and annex major and influential countries using the military and mechanical might of his isolationist regime, but had often failed due to the local and american superheroes that opposed him. Including, more often than not, Dr. Richards and his team. Frustrated by these failures the despot had recently come up with a slightly different approach. On the morning of April 5th 1968, Doom secretly addressed his kingdom's most seasoned robot generals from inside the castle's banqueting hall. During his speech, he outlined his plans to conquer smaller and less powerful countries, deeply militarise them in much the same manner as he had done to Latveria and use the combined military might of each to take over the larger lands he so coveted. He had chosen his targets specifically and carefully, as while he wanted his targets to be small, he didn't want them to be minute enough for him to seem weak in the eyes of his subjects as well as his enemies and besides that, in his own words, he preferred the challenge. These were, in no particular order, The Kingdom of Corona, The Kingdom of Drusselstein, The Kingdom of Jugendheit and The Kingdom of Swisslakia, which Doom hoped to use as a launching pad for his forces to successfully invade the other countries along with Tomainia at a later date.

Wisely, Doom had done all he could to keep the meeting a secret. However this attention to detail did surprisingly little to prevent eccentric British MI6 spy, "mod", "swinger", fashion photographer, notorious sex enthusiast and self titled "International Man of Mystery" Austin Danger Powers, (several months prior to the agent's voluntary cryogenic suspension) from infiltrating the meeting disguised as one of the many "Doombots" guarding the interior of the castle and recording the king's speech on a hidden device. By the time Powers' cover was blown, the agent had slipped away into Doomstadt where he proceeded to have intercourse with several willing but married women before escaping back to Britain and reporting his findings to his superior and co head of MI6, Basil Mentero, who then passed on the intelligence to the "M" at the time. Mentero had hoped that Jimmy Bond would be available to deal with the situation, with the Richards' Quartet being a B plan. It became apparent that neither plan would be doable for two reasons. Bond was faking his death at the time, in preparation for dealing with the mysterious disappearances of both American and Soviet space crafts, which had brought the world close to Nuclear Armageddon. Meanwhile, Dr. Richards and his team were away in the Andromeda Galaxy on a mission to once again protect Earth from the hostile alien race known as the "Skrulls." To make matters more difficult, Super villainy and general crime in the west were seeing a steady increase during this time and the Superheroes of America, The UK and Europe found themselves busy in their own territories. With almost nowhere else to turn, Mentero, M and Powers came to George Hyde requesting the assistance of The League. The idea to utilise the League had been partially Powers', who insisted on providing his own assistance to the team. (Many suspect this was done partially as a way to sleep with Trevor, but also because Powers had grown up with Billington's adventures, as recorded in book form by Greendale Clergyman, the Reverend Peter Timms, as the agent was known to be somewhat childish as well as sexually driven.) In order to prevent a widespread panic throughout Europe and the Balkans it was decided that only the Leaders of the US, UK and japan, the leaders of the countries at risk of invasion and their armed forces would know of the forthcoming attacks.

Knowing that they were unable to get into Latveria itself without _some_ degree of planning, George Hyde arranged for Powers to rendezvous with the League at Bern Station in the capital of Swisslakia, the target closest to Latveria. They arrived on April 13th at 13:55 PM. As Billington stopped at Platform 1, the 5 found themselves greeted not only by Powers, but by The King of the small nation, David I. His majesty had gained a modest amount of fame in the west during his late childhood after invading Nazi hordes from Tomainia took over the Kingdom in 1943 and massacred the Swisslaki Royal Family via firing squad. Only the then Boy Prince had survived the line of fire. Still his father, the former king, had survived only long enough to tell his son the truth. The Nazi invasion of their kingdom had in fact been foretold many centuries ago by the supposed prophet Nostradamus who, in an act of compassion, gave the kingdom the means to fight off the invaders in the form of a mechanical giant stone golem which could be activated by inserting a giant screw into the neck. After burying his creation in Swisslakia, Nostradamus left the giant's secret with the Swisslaki Royal Family at the time. And so the secret had been passed on from ruler to ruler, until at last it had reached the ears of the Prince who upon activating the giant and driving out the invaders, realised that this could only be a temporary solution in the long run. Prince David decided therefore to use The Giant to transport all of his people to The United States where they would be safe. Sure enough, Swisslakia was reconquered and subsequently dissolved. The Swisslaki refugees were welcomed with open arms by FDR and _most_ of the American people and after Adenoid Hynkle's gruesome death in 1945 at the hands of the pyrokinetic robot hero Jim Hammond, (who's code name and powers were shared by the more popular and famous Jonathan Storm) Swisslakia was re-established and handed back to The Prince (who had spent his time in the US as a crime fighter of sorts, under the guidance of heroes like Robert Frank and Alan Scott) and his people. Surprisingly, a number of Americans from New York City (where David had taken his people) chose to come along and many Tomainians chose to stay in the country even after the war. The end result of this being that Swisslakia quickly became a melting pot of the Swisslaki, American and Tomainian cultures as well as a popular vacation spot for the rich and middle classes. The giant meanwhile was still utilised by the now Adult King David to protect the nation's borders alongside the nation's armed forces.

When the team exited their coach, King David gave them the customary royal greeting, before Powers pushed him aside and in his usual shaky and abnormal manner, walked up to Trevor attempting to charm her right from the get go. The princess ignored the agent's advances, much to Powers' disappointment. This did not however stop him from greeting the other members of the league who came to have mixed feelings about the agent. Captain Tempest held the most negative view of Powers, though he tried to be as civil as possible around him. He saw the man as childish, dimwitted and lecherous. Much more than Jimmy Bond. Despite his own liberal leanings, Mifune too felt a sense of discomfort around the Carnaby Street clothed spy, what with his eccentric personality and belief in free love without restrictions. Only Fonzerelli who, despite the efforts of the O'Mally administrations hand picked PR men for the team to reshape him into a symbol of patriotic governmental loyalty, had remained mildly liberal and somewhat anti authoritarian in his views and stood by Powers as a hero as well an idealist. Leaving the otherwise uncertain Billington at the station, the team was escorted to The Royal Palace where they met David's Queen along with his children. After that, they were lead to the royal wine cellars where they met the leaders of Corona, Drusselstein and Jugendheit. The king had chosen to hold the meeting there specifically for the added security it would grant from Latverian spies. All of the leaders in attendance were in fact constitutional monarchs who, rather than merely being national figureheads with next to no political power such as in the case of Gloriana II of the UK, still had varying degrees of influence and control in their countries. Most were beloved by their subjects with one exception. King Flocher Marquard of Drusselstein, a cowardly, selfish, dishonourable figure who's dynasty's 500 year reign of oppression and militarisation along with their archaic feudal system had slowly turned their nation into a disgusting, totalitarian, technologically deficient state, while leaving their people brainwashed and politically apathetic. Some parts of the country resembled something akin to North Korea, albeit with (of course) Germanic architecture. Flotcher had also more or less totally abolished most forms of democracy in his kingdom, making him unsurprisingly unpopular back home and internationally to the point where he was seated at the far end of the conference table, where the other kings and queens could have as little to do with him as possible.

In truth the only reason he had been invited was out of fairness. At the other end facing King Flocher was another seat. This one was reserved for Princess Diana who's status as a leader both nationally and in skill along with her association with King David during the war had lead her to be invited to speak on the issue at hand. As the majority of her friends and Powers watched on, Princess Diana stood up to speak 1st. Having had a prior encounter with Doom before, during an often unrecorded and overlooked escapade with Janet van Dine and Dr. Henry Pym, she understood the severity of the situation. Already, if recent intelligence was to be believed, Latverian forces were being mobilised for all out war with Swisslakia and the usually neutral nation was shockingly outgunned. King David, who had great faith in his giant, insisted that the automaton's size and strength would be enough to take out most of the invading legions, allowing his army and the League to deal with the rest with little trouble. This brought little comfort to Rapunzel IV (Queen of Corona) or Fredrick III (King of Jugendheit) who saw the golem as outdated and long overdue for a halfway decent upgrade. Half blinded by his nostalgia based trust in his wartime ''friend'', David was offended by the remark. He had said little however when King Flocher stood up, banged the wooden table with his fist and presented his own suggestion. To the shock and absolute disgust of all present, Flotcher openly admitted to having met with Doom on at least three occasions. (April 6th, 7th and 9th) Claiming to have been merely ''negotiating'' with the tyrant, he produced a scrap of paper from his overcoat and presented it to the company. This turned out to be a "treaty" of some kind, with King Flotcher and Doom's signatures already penned onto it. The royals and the League all took a close look at the treaty and to their horror learned that any country that signed it would be would be forced to supply Latveria with whatever Doom or his descendants might be in need of for a century and a half. Worse still, the agreeing countries would be forced to ally themselves with Latveria in every future conflict from then on for the exact same amount of years, as well as invade other countries and aid in projects when needed. In conclusion, any leader who signed the paper, would effectively turn their country into a puppet state.

There was an immediate growl of anger from near the table as Tempest grabbed the cowering monarch from his seat and demanded to know what his true intentions were. Flotcher angrily pushed the WASP captain away, insisting that none of the countries could ever hope to stand up to the might of Latveria and that only by meeting Doom's demands could they hope to keep themselves unconquered. Mifune's strong sense of morality and general desire for freedom and happiness compelled him to interject. Hoping in vain to reach what little sense of human decency and self respect the king had left, he insisted that what Doom was offering him and the others was worse than annexation. It was flat out blackmail and extortion and he begged Flotcher to go back on his deal for the sake of his people. This plea fell on deaf ears as Flotcher, caring as little about his subjects as they did about themselves, backhanded the teen across the face demanding that he shut up. This act of aggression against the boy was answered when Powers pulled his Browning Hi-Power from his pocket while at the same time, Tempest pulled out his own specially designed pistol and both were pointed at the king. But Fonzerelli, who had grown increasingly fond of Mifune ever since their first meeting in Milwaukee, moved in front of the two agents and pulled a switchblade from his pocket, demanding to know what Flotcher thought he was doing by hurting his ''Lil Buddy.'' Flotcher underestimated Mifune's intelligence and passed him off as just another "ignorant liberal teenager" out loud. Trevor, wisely realising that Flotcher had a hidden agenda, began to take her lasso of truth from her hip. Cornered between the league and Powers and the table of rulers, Flotcher desperately looked left and right looking for any possible escape, which is how he spotted Prince brandishing her weapon. Panic stricken, King Flotcher pulled a small, corked test tube of dark grey liquid from his pocket and dropped it on the hard floor, smashing it. All at once the cellar filled with a grey, foul smelling gas that caused all to choke and cough uncontrollably, giving Flotcher the time to escape. Luckily Prince's superhuman durability mostly protected her from the smog and she was able to throw her lasso around Flotcher's ankles. Somehow, Flotcher's fear of Doom allowed him to resist the lasso and all it was able to make him utter were the words "Ich arbeite mit Doom für die Macht!" (I work with Doom for power!) before Prince felt the lasso lose its hold.

Then, as soon as it had arrived, the noxious smoke evaporated. When the occupants looked for Flotcher, All they found were the king's bear fur lined leather boots lying on the floor. Almost at once King David and the other royals dispatched the league and Powers to look for the treasonous king. David also instructed one of his guards to inform the municipal police of the trouble, with strict instructions not to let word of Flotcher's escape or treason leak to the public out of fear of causing a panic. Once back in the main city, the league and powers split up in search of the treasonous king. Mifune was left to search on foot, (the Mach 5 was only just being unloaded back at the station.) and was just thinking of searching with Billington via rail, when he accidentally bumped into a pedestrian, knocking them to the pavement. Regretful for what had happened, Mifune apologised at once and saw that the person he had walked into was a young teen boy apparently three years younger than himself, (Speed had recently turned 19) with curly red hair and a thin physique who looked up at Mifune with a dazed, vacant expression. Looking around, the racer also observed that the boy had at the time been carrying a bag filled with a variety of cheeses which were now scattered all over the path and while finding the scene amusing at heart, Mifune quickly stifled his laughter and attempted to pick up as much of the cheese as he could. This was not to be since just as Mifune was finishing this task a horse drawn cart came down the road and crushed a particularly large and pungent wheel of Emmental, much to the distress of the buyer who had now come out of his daze. Expecting annoyance and even anger from the other bystander, Mifune apologised again but was pleasantly surprised when the boy, in a dialect that resembled that of the Northern English than that of the Swisslaki, assured him he didn't hold him accountable and that there were no hard feelings, (He himself having not payed attention to his own surroundings at the time of the accident.) also exclaiming that it was an honour to ''run into a celebrity" in this part of Europe.

After the two had had a good laugh about the event, the young man introduced himself as "Wally Douglas." A 16 year old high school senior from St John Fisher Catholic High School in Wigan, Lancashire. (now geographically in Greater Manchester.) Coming from a typical middle class upbringing, Douglas was a well meaning, sociable and enthusiastic, yet slightly "geeky", bumbling, unobservant and slightly shy young man with outwardly simple needs and a good sense of morality. His only vice seemingly being a mild addiction to cheese. Douglas explained that he along with some other students were taking a two weeks educational trip to Swisslakia (now on the last week). Paid for by the school as part of a cultural enrichment program, in order for the students to learn about its history and culture as well as see its many landmarks and attractions. (Douglas' love of cheese partially inspiring him to sign up.) Douglas, always willing to make close friends, (as he had very few due to his ''nerdy'' nature) invited Mifune back to the hostel he and the other students were staying as a sign of friendship. Seeing the eagerness on the youth's face but knowing how important locating King Flotcher was to the world, Mifune agreed to meet with Douglas later that evening and after the red haired teen had given Mifune the address of the hostel young racer left to find Billington.

The tank engine was idling in the goods yard when Mifune located and explained the situation to him. After fetching the engine crew, thew two made their way wherever the rails ran hoping to find the treacherous royal, but soon, a few miles outside of Bern, Billington's coal and water supply began to run low and they were forced to reverse back. It was beginning to get dark by this point and it was hard to see much regardless. Nevertheless, Billington thought he could see a shadowy figure running across a meadow before diving into a hedgerow. This was soon dismissed as being either a rabbit or a fox and the two headed back to the station. The duo found Powers and rest of the League waiting for them and each member produced similar reports. Each took their collective findings to King David, whose fellow royals and most trusted advisers concluded that Flotcher had managed to escape to Liechtenstein where he would most likely be picked up by Doom and taken back to Latveria either to regroup with his partner or to be punished for his failure. It was decided, mostly by King David, that either the giant or the guards assisting the giant would hopefully be able to deal with Flotcher before he reached Doom. Tired and fruitless, the league were shown to their quarters but Mifune, remembering his promise to Wally Douglas, asked to king's permission to give up his room to Powers for the night in order to spend it at the hostel. Unoffended and greatly admiring the young man's commitment to keeping his promise, King David gave his permission, much to the disappointment and irritation of Powers, who had hoped to spend the night in Trevor's quarters. (It can be theorised that Mifune knew of this from the start and had partially given his lodgings to the sexually driven agent so as to prevent him from bothering the heroine.)

Taking along a sleeping bag that he had brought from home prior to officially joining the league, Mifune made his way to the hostel by taxi and was welcomed by an ecstatic Douglas who hadn't believed the older boy would _really_ make his appearance and was merely being polite. In actuality, Mifune had developed a liking for the enthusiastic young man and _wanted_ to get to know him better. It took some time to find the room that Douglas shared with three of his fellow students as many of the other St John Fisher students had spotted the racing driver's arrival and being fans themselves, began to surround the boy hoping to obtain an autograph or, at the very least, get a Polaroid of their hero. By sheer luck, Douglas was able to escort Mifune to his room (his roommates being absent for the time being) and introduced him to his portion of it at the far end close to the only window. A wide assortment paper cheese wrappers and cream cracker tins littered the floor and on the wall closest to the bed was a poster of Douglas' personal crush. Then 17 year old actress and corporate mascot of the Bake o Lite bread company, Paella Bakewell. Mifune was concerned that Douglas' intake of cheese would doubtlessly prove detrimental to his heath in later years, but before he could comment he happened to notice some metallic flashes from under his friend's bed with Douglas unable to dissuade him from looking underneath. At first, Douglas seemed reluctant to explain the strange objects seemingly made out of scrap metal and everyday household appliances, but after some extra prodding from Mifune he relented. It seemed that Douglas was an amateur inventor and had what could only be described as a highly prodigious talent for creating near perfect machines and devices, explaining that his main inspirations for this dream profession were American inventors Thomas Edison and Frank Reade Sr, as well as British-American inventor Caractacus Potts. (whose flying automobile invented in 1910, would later be acquired, modified and repurposed by MI6 as one of the many cars used by Jimmy Bond.) Douglas usually created his gadgets out of whatever was available to him at the time and possessed a strange fixation with the suffix "O-Matic", which he added to the end of many a creation's name. Each was powered by both conventional and unconventional means.

Douglas explained that a number of these machines had in fact been made back in England and had been brought to Swisslakia in secret to display to anyone who might show interest in purchasing them. One of these he idealistically hoped to show to King David himself to help protect the country from enemy spies. This strange, hand sized, spider shaped assortment of clockwork parts, scrap metal and camera innards/lenses was known by its creator as a "Spy'd-O-Matic." its general purpose being to film the actions of enemy agents and criminals, the device was able to track and follow any individual by inserting any part of their DNA into a slot on the top of the metallic camouflage painted creature. (Douglas had tested this on his mother and had received a severe beating from his father for his troubles after the device accidentally tracked Mrs. Douglas to the bathroom during her afternoon bath.) Any footage filmed by the video camera ''eyes'' of the machine was instantly picked up by another invention, a small, modified Wharton Era Telescreen, jokingly referred to as the "Bruv-O-Matic" A pyramidal antenna on top of the monitor, with the assistance of a special receiver in the Spy'd-O-Matic, transmitted whatever footage the robot saw to the screen itself, allowing the viewer to observe whatever the robot was filming. Mifune was extremely impressed, albeit sceptical of his new friend's _outlandish_ claims, but still maintained a sense of interest given the recent failure to apprehend King Flotcher earlier that afternoon. The two teenagers spent the rest of that evening enjoying the company of both each other and Douglas' fellow students, whilst discussing _mostly_ typical teenage interests of the time and more personal subjects such as life and careers etc before retiring to bed and sleeping bag.

On April 14th the next day, at precisely 7:20 AM. Mifune was woken by the sound of a rather strong fist knocking on the door to the room. Unaware that Douglas had also been woken by the noise, Mifune answered the door, only to find his teammates and Agent Powers on the other side, Mifune having told his friends of the Hostel's location before setting off. The league didn't explain much to their colleague, only that King David had given them orders to go to the German border. According to reports The King's Giant, which the king had planned to airlift to Lichtenstein to search for King Flotcher and properly protect the kingdom from a Latverian invasion, had been found in a part of the Rhine close to the town of Büsingen in pieces. Agents of both Latveria and Drusselstein, possibly in preparation for Doom's invasion, were suspected of preforming the destructive act. After a quick change of clothes, Mifune as well as the others realised that Douglas had heard most of their conversation. This presented a mild problem for the team as although the League were celebrities at this point, the monarchs of the targeted countries had insisted that this particular mission remain as covert as possible. To them, the possibility of panic and riots being incited among their respective populations was just too great. After a lengthy conversation with the boy, Douglas informed Trevor and Tempest that he would gladly keep quiet about what he had heard, provided that he be allowed to accompany them on this assignment and lend his assistance. Both team leaders were extremely reluctant to put the civilian boy in potential danger, but it was Mifune who advocated for his friend's request after presenting to them the inventions he had been shown the previous evening. Sceptical, but now unwilling to let this potential opportunity slide, The League finally agreed to give Douglas and his devices a chance to prove themselves and after gaining the permission of the school group's teacher, under the pretence of taking the boy on an educational trip to Germany and then back again. The team then set off to Germany in their respective vehicles with Tempest travelling up the Rhine in Stingray via underground channels known only to W.A.S.P personal as well as the Rhine, Mifune travelling with Douglas in the Mach 5 with Fonzerelli riding alongside on his 1949 Triumph Trophy and Powers in his signature Union jack coloured Jaguar E-Type close behind. Billington of course travelled by rail with his crew while Trevor flew in her jet. Each arrived at Büsingen at various times around 11:00 AM with Trevor arriving first and Billington arriving last.

Once all but one were assembled, Tempest radio messaged all team members and associates that were physically able to reach him to meet him at the stretch of the High Rhine closest to the town. (He'd been the first the witness the damage up close.) Upon exiting their vehicles and following Tempest's directions, the team found themselves rushing to a dock near the town to get a closer look, not of course, that it was necessary for them to do so. The damage could be seen from a mile away and it was truly a sombre sight. The Rhine was littered with the mechanical and stone remains of the giant's body. The whole automaton appeared to have been brutally ripped apart and many of its innards could be found floating near the full wreckage. The detached chiselled limbs were protruding from the water like hideous parodies of the fabled "Lady of the lake" from the Arthurian era. Only the muscular stone torso and somewhat "handsome" head were still attached. Stingray had been parked by the dock and Captain Tempest stepped out to address the team. In the distance, Powers pointed out the image of a wooden yacht close to the Giant's head. Upon closer observation, it was revealed that the sole occupant (besides the two royal bodyguards of course) was in fact King David. On his knees and crying out in rage and emotional pain to the sky. Almost at once, the observers on the dock felt a great deal of sympathy for the king. While the golem's possession of artificial intelligence was questionable, it was apparent that the stone machine had meant a great deal to the monarch, who saw the giant as his oldest surviving friend. (most if his closest ones had been killed in a senseless Nazi massacre of both peasant and nobility.) Many townspeople had gathered at the banks of the High Rhine to observe the destruction and an air of gloom and fear now cast itself over the observers.

As Tempest swam off to try and talk to the king, Trevor quickly instructed the others to question the civilians, hoping to find witnesses to the event. The princess wanted Douglas to stay with her, but the boy was already scanning the banks of the river for any sign of DNA left by the perpetrators. Meanwhile, Powers, Fonzerelli and Mifune managed to find their answers in an old angler who had apparently been walking to the dock on the night of the incident to do some night fishing for what was believed at the time to be a recently discovered cross between a goldfish and a catfish. (Which would later turn out to be one of the 1st so called "Pocket Monsters" whose existence would become so prevalent throughout the world in the 1990s. Somehow a few had been spotted in Germany.) The old man claimed to have seen the giant standing vigilant in the Rhine as he made his way down to the dock along with 13 highly trained, heavily armed soldiers from the German army in inflatable rafts who had been assigned to guard it until its removal to Lichtenstein, when he had heard a strange buzzing sound in the sky above him, becoming louder and louder gradually. Upon looking up, he had seen a sight that, in his own words, had made him "Physically Sick." A monster of sorts, specifically a large ape with what appeared to be the head, abdomen and wings of a mosquito, but enlarged in order to accommodate the eastern gorilla's body and limbs. Before long a swam of approximately 25 of these monstrosities had followed before deciding from the sky towards both giant and guards. Even as the guards fired a volley of machine gun bullets at the beasts and the giant attempted to swat that aside, the beasts continued their descent, seemingly undeterred and unharmed. The angler, both out of fear and of morbid curiosity, had hidden behind a parked car and watched as the "Apesquitoes" had attacked the helpless army officers. Inserting their proboscises into their heads, killing them instantly before draining them of their fluids. They had then turned their attention to the giant. 20 of them, 5 for each limb, had taken hold of the giant's arms and legs and after several pulls, tore them off leaving behind only jagged tubes where the rest of the shoulders and thighs had once been on the torso, leaving it to fall with a loud splash into the Rhine. Then, as soon as they had arrived, the abominable monsters had seemingly retreated to where they'd come from.

It was quickly surmised by Fonzerelli, that the Apesquitoes had come from Latveria and had been sent by Doom to destroy the giant, mostly to demoralise the Swisslaki population and its leadership. However, while this was most likely the case, no one wanted to rush to conclusions on the faint chance that the attack was from another outside force. Trevor was about to question the man on the whereabouts of the bodies when the sound of a frantic steam whistle reached the riverbank, causing her to send Fonzerelli and Mifune to the nearby railway station to check on Billington. Arriving, they discovered the distressed engine next to the platform with his eyes closed and upon calming and asking their friend about the reason for his panicked outburst, Billington merely motioned his large eyes towards the station wall. Propped up against it were several very human shaped figures covered in white sheets. One had an arm fully exposed which appeared to be nothing more than literal skin and bones. Feeling slightly nauseated, Fonzerelli told Billington to shut his eyes again while he and Mifune uncovered the rest of the corpse. What they found is easy, yet horrifying to imagine as these were indeed the drained bodies of the unfortunate soldiers. After attempting to rid their minds of the sight they had just witnessed, they covered the body up again and radioed in for the rest of the team to join them once their investigation was complete. An hour and a half later all were assembled at the station except for Douglas. All conclusions pointed to Doom being the main culprit and that the insect/ape hybrids were of Latverian origin. However, with no solid evidence they had no way to track them to their exact birthplace, which might have been _anywhere_ in Latveria. Nor for that matter, did they have any way to know how Doom was controlling them.

Tempest meanwhile had manged to talk to the now calm King, whom he had talked out of invading the country as David, in his emotional pain, had vowed to raise Doomstadt to the ground in an act of revenge. Instead, the League were to continue their investigation and bring Doom in alive before his invasion plans could be fully realised. After ten more minutes of his absence, Trevor instructed Mifune to fetch Douglas. Mifune complied but had not travelled a few meters from the station when he spotted Douglas running towards him with some hairs clenched in his fist. Quickly he handed them to Mifune who then presented them to Trevor. Sure enough, Trevor soon identified them as the hairs of a Gorilla and declared that they were one step closer to finding Doom and Flotcher and putting an end to the masked despot's invasion plans. The return journey to Swisslakia took as long as the trip from it and team, with the addition of King David in Stingray, returned to Bern around 15:00. After returning Douglas to the hostel, Mifune parked the Mach 5 back at the castle and met with Trevor at the nearby airport before travelling with her via invisible jet to Hungary, carrying Douglas's "Spy'd-o-Matic" under his arm and the ape hairs in his trouser pocket. Once they were close enough to the Hungarian-Latverian border, Trevor landed the plan and parked it in a nearby cave. Initially, she and Mifune had planned on incapacitating the guards by stealthily knocking them unconscious, thereby allowing Mifune to place the Apesquito's hairs in the Spy'd-o-Matic and sending the insect like robot over the massive concrete wall that separated Latveria from its neighbours.

After accomplishing this and hiding the unconscious bodies in a nearby thicket of blueberry bushes, the two were contemplating how to sneak the device over the wall when Mifune spotted a small breach, just large enough for the Spy'd-o-Matic to crawl through. He put the machine on the ground and inserted the hairs. At once the hatch closed up and the device's camera eyes lit up as it beeped into life. Then, the tiny robot quietly scuttled through the hole before scuttling away rapidly. Several guards reportedly heard and attempted to locate to source of the metallic noises, but were unable to find it as it made its way from the border and descended the hill towards its destination. At this point Trevor and Mifune wisely decided to return to Swisslakia before they risked confrontation with the Latverian troops. Meanwhile, back in Bern, Fonzerelli was helping Wally Douglas sneak out of the hostel via a portable fire escape ladder connected to apartment's window. Under Douglas' right arm was the "Bruv-O-Matic" which was securely tied to the lower part of the handle bars before the two set off to the castle. Sometime later, Mifune and Trevor arrived at the castle along and all members of the team assembled in the throne room with King Davis who was then told of the plan while at Bern station, Billington put the Team's Video Phone to use. The contents of Billington's call will be explained in better detail later in this chapter.

After the Bruv-o-Matic had been plugged into an outlet, the attendees watched with anticipation as the modified telescreen began to broadcast the footage. Things started off poorly, as the first few monochrome images came out blurred and almost indistinguishable and for a brief time, Douglas was left sweating. Wondering what would be done to him. Luckily, a swift knock to the top of the screen fixed the picture. (an effective technique for fixing regular televisions, but one often overlooked and one that would instantly land you in the "Miniluv" HQ during the days of Big Brother.) Soon, images of the enemy's throne room at Castle Doom came into view with the Monarch, dressed in his Emerald green hooded cloak sitting and listening with anticipation to his present company. At this point, Douglas produced the previously unmentioned and unseen "manual controls" for his device and turned the robot towards the other man. The Spy'd-o-Matic, hidden under a desk, soon caught the image of said figure. A tall, fat, grubby individual with 5 o'clock shadow wearing a rat fur coat, who was almost instantly recognisable as King Flotcher, walked closer to the throne. In his left hand he carried a long, metal (possibly adamantium) chain, attached to a manacle, which upon yet another rotation, was found around the head of the monster seen by the fisherman in Büsingen. The viewing heroes in Bern recoiled in disgust as the segmented eyes and enormous syringe like snout of the beast came into view. It seemed however, that the monstrosity was in fact asleep for the time being. On its back was a Mosquito abdomen filled with blood.

As Douglas turned the head of the Spy'd-o-Matic upwards towards the right hand corner of the far end of the room, the viewers saw all 25 of the beasts, fast asleep with their simian hands on their chests. All were held in chains and attached to each others manacles with electronic mind controlling devices and automatic locking mechanisms on each one. Only a few had full abdomens. In a few days time, they would feed again. Not much information passed between the kings during their relatively brief conversation, but what they heard was all that was necessary for them to act. Doom, it seemed, had forgiven Flotcher for his failure to con the other nations into capitulating the day before, and was instead grateful for the exotic animal specimens that his Drusselsteinian "ally" had been so "generous" to part ways with. This came as a surprise to all but King David, Powers and Tempest as they knew from prior experiences that King Flotcher was well known for collecting rare flora and fauna for his own private menagerie. Flotcher, in an appalling display of what can only be called "boot licking", praised Doom for his "merciful kindness and wisdom" and promised to lend all of his countries resources and all available servicemen to aid with the invasions. Pleased by this, Doom promised Flotcher that he and his kingdom would come to no harm and that he hoped the other "Hybrids" in development would satisfy as much as the ones currently sleeping in his throne room. As the team tried to piece together the new string of information, Doom loudly summoned a trio of Doombots, ordering them to escort the Hybrids to the dungeon until the morning. Then, to wake the monsters, he used the technological abilities of his armour to send a bolt of electrical energy towards them. As the creatures screamed in pain, a stay bolt of electricity happened to direct itself towards the Spy'd-o-Matic. All at once the transmission was lost and the screen went back to burred lines. Most of the league were shocked by what they had witnessed. Despite the innocent lives the Apesquitoes had taken and the damage they had caused, they now pondered that they probably hadn't committed the deeds of their own free will.

The screams they had heard before all communications went dead only strengthened their resolve to travel to Castle Doom, put an end to whatever method had been used to create them, then either find a way to cure them or to put them out of their obvious misery before Doom could bring his plans for them to fruition. In the end, Tempest recommended that they set off just after 1:00 AM in Trevor's aeroplane as it would offer them the swiftest commute between the two countries and be unseen by the enemy as long as they flew out of range of any possible radar systems, then parachute into Latveria, find a way into the castle dungeons and put an end to the experiments. King David, his mind now fully clear, wished the heroes good luck but advised them to keep Doom alive and in Latveria as, despite being a dictator and a super villain, he was still, at the time, loved by his people and if they killed or kidnapped their leader, an international incident would most likely occur.

Out of emotional sympathy for the poor creatures at Doom and Flotcher's disposal and those who would soon be subjected to the same treatment, Douglas demanded that he be brought along as well. This time, his request was immediately denied by the leadership, who saw this situation as simply too dangerous for the untrained civilian boy to take part in. Trevor then ordered Fonzerelli to transport the boy back to the the hostel. Fonzerelli wanted to comply if only for Douglas' safety, but secretly sympathised with the boy more considering his eagerness and the obvious help he had provided earlier. According to a report by Fonzerelli himself, he returned to the Hostel as ordered with the boy in tow, but sneaked into the room with him asking to see some more of his inventions. Douglas was more than happy to comply, but feared being returned home early if caught, leading to Fonzerelli temporarily blocking the door with a chair. Douglas then pulled two other creations from under the bed. A "knock out gas ring" of sorts, (inspired perhaps by the one used by American scientist and costumed crime fighter Rex Tyler.) with the gas being produced from juices from vegetables in his father's garden and a sort of suit made of leather and scrap metal with a Rugby helmet for protection. The suit included a spring loaded, steel lined boxing glove on the chest, hidden turrets in the shoulders that fired metal BB pellets and switch blades in the toe caps. Though impressed by his ingenuity, Fonzerelli realised that none of these devices would be enough to fight Doom's mostly robotic army and sternly told Douglas that he simply wasn't going with them. Douglas was at first hurt, but quickly understood the older male's concern for his well being, saying nothing more of it. Fonzerelli later had the same conversation with Billington, leading to an argument between the two which ended when Fonzerelli reluctantly agreed that if and _only_ if the engine could find a way to the Latverian borders by rail in time , he would be able to act as a getaway vehicle if the others were unable to access the invisible jet. Giving Billington a head start, he departed for the castle.

It was 20:30 PM by the time the League and Powers were able to sleep. At 1:20 AM on April 15th , the team were woken up by Tempest with cold water splashed against their faces. (with the exception of Trevor who's stamina was over half replenished by her brief sleep.) "Refreshed", they were escorted to the jet and flew in the directions of the Balkans. As predicted, it did not take them long to reach Latverian airspace and once in range of Doomstadt, they exited the plane, landing near each other, but not in the exact same place as hoped. As it happened, Powers and Fonzerelli landed closest to the Castle, so they were the ones responsible for collecting disguises for the group. Disabling some of the larger Doombots with some well timed hits to their weakest points and stripping them of their armour sufficed and by the time all were assembled close to the castle, all members of the league had disguises. Upon arriving at the castle, a tall, impressive structure built on top of a mountain overlooking the city, the drawbridge was lowered for them and they were escorted in by yet another patrol of Doombots. Through King Flotcher, Doom had become fully aware of the League's interference in his plans and had put most of his Doombots on high alert. Upon being questioned, the League (speaking through voice altering devices distributed by Powers for such an occasion) reported that they (the Doombots) had seen nothing. It was reported by one of the "Captains" that an unseen craft had been detected by the castle radars, but the Tempest-Doombot merely suggested that it was nothing more that a large bird of prey that had somehow been detected. this explanation _miraculously_ enough to quell the suspicions of the royal guard who then allowed their fellow ''machines'' to carry on with their programming. The five then made their way from the courtyard all the way to the entrance hallway where, as luck would have it, they quickly met with Doom himself. At once Trevor, acting as the leader of the small Fireteam, stepped forward but knowing Doom's notorious ego, wisely did not pose the idea for them to be sent to the dungeon right away, instead making an offhanded remark about the beasts to Doom. With the thought of the hybrids now in his mind and with the previous dungeon guards having been sent to patrol the castle roof, Doom ordered his ''robots'' to keep an eye on them. Quickly, the team marched in single file to the stairs descending towards the cellars and dungeon closing the door behind them. Once they had reached the final stair, the team removed their disguises and headed into the green lit catacombs, the sounds of clattering chains and bestial yelling driving them on. Eventually, they decided to split up in a team of three and one of two and find what they could. One team consisting of Trevor, Mifune and Powers travelled Left, while the unlikely duo of Tempest and Fonzerelli went right.

Left team continued to traverse the green torch lit catacombs for a quarter of an hour, passing doors to rooms that they opened in the hope of finding something of interest. At times, the rooms would contain Doombots and Trevor and Powers would be forced to deactivate or even destroy the machines to avoid detection. After walking two quarters of a mile the three came to a door that, unlike the others, was already slightly open. From behind it came a sort of blinking white light, most unlike the green torches that had lit most of the cellar so far, accompanied by the sounds of complex electronic machinery operating. Each of them glanced inside and quickly realised that they had finally found what they had been looking for. a web of wires and cables,, attached to large, black supercomputers the size and shape of the Stonehenge monoliths and with colourful buttons and switches on their panels, hung only a couple of inches from the ceiling. On a desk nearby lay a stack of files and research papers of varying sizes and in the middle of the room, surrounded by all of this, stood two large, human sized, rectangular prisms made entirely out of two inch thick glass, completely clear with metallic plating on the corners and sides and two door handles each for the exteriors and interiors of both. After knocking out the scientists guarding the Prisms, Mifune quickly went to inspect some of the documents on the table with Trevor's assistance. Upon reading it, the most important part of the whole mystery was solved. These two prisms were not only _vital_ to Doom's invasion plans, it was also now discovered that they weren't even Latverian in origin.

These glass boxes, referred to collectively by the papers as a "disintegrator-integrator" (or "Telepods" for short) were in reality the creation of a Canadian scientist from Montreal, Quebec and Second World War veteran by the name of Andre Delambre. Most of these papers were merely documentation of Mr. Delambre's experiments typed by the scientist himself, explaining that the original purposes of these devices were to unlock the secrets of teleportation for uses both in delivery and transportation. the concept seemed simple enough. One box disintegrated the atoms of one object or person, then the other box reintegrated them, making that object or person teleport from one box to another. But, one small set of notes, typed it seemed by a mysterious benefactor with an "In case you find this" message preceding them. According to the notes, Delambre had worked on this amazing machine from 1956 to 1958 in his secret laboratory in the basement of his home which he shared with family. Most of his tests with the Telepods had been successful, (barring one unfortunate incident with the family cat.) until he had attempted to teleport himself. The first attempt had been perfect but according to the notes, during Delambre's second attempt a common Housefly had made its way inside the disintegration pod causing both of their atoms to mix upon the pod's activation. The incident left the ill-fated scientist with the enlarged head and arm of a Fly and the Fly with the shrunken head and arm of Delambre. For unknown reasons, both retained their original minds. Unable to face his family in this state, Delambre hid his head under a cloth and his new "claw" in his lab coat pocket. Eventually his wife, Helene, managed to get through to him and she, their servant and their son Phillipe all attempted to catch the other hybrid, as only by putting both hybrids through the same teleportation process could you undo the effects inflicted upon them. After this proved fruitless, Mrs. Delambre had convinced her husband to try the process without the Fly. This of course failed and after seeing her Husband's new head, Helene had passed out from fright. Driven by rage and heartbreak as the fly instincts took over his ever fading mind, Delambre tore his lab apart. Destroying the original pods and seemingly burning all of his documented research on the project. Afterwards, with the help of his wife and a hydraulic press at the metal plate factory he co-owned with his brother Francois, Delambre had crushed his head and fly arm into nothing, seemingly destroying all evidence of the Fly Monster he had become.

The following morning as his sister in law who had confessed to the murder was to be taken away to a lunatic asylum, Francois and Montreal Police Inspector Jean Baptiste Charas, too late for it to be of use, discovered the human/fly in a spider's web about to be drained by a large, brown, arachnid. Out of mercy, the inspector killed both with a large rock and Andre Delambre's death was ruled as a suicide to protect his widow. After reading this, Mifune and Trevor attempted to interpret how, if Andre Delambre's research had all been destroyed, how these papers could even exist.

The truth was far more sinister than either of them could imagine. During the invention of the Telepods, Delambre's experiments had caught the attention of The Syndicate. The American organisation nicknamed "The Men in Black, who were tasked with combating and concealing certain extraterrestrial or paranormal events from the general Earth populous. During their days as a much smaller government organisation, The Syndicate were concerned from the start that Delambre's teleportation project was too unsophisticated technologically, as they themselves were experimenting with the same scientific concept using Alien technology with mixed results. So, when Delambre had made copies of most of his important papers, they used their earliest form of memory erasing technology to force him into forget the existence of the originals, which were stored in a steel safe in his lab. Said safe was confiscated by The Syndicate and stored in a nearby warehouse while they watched the experiments in Dalambre's lab using hidden cameras. After the "Fly" incident of 58, The Syndicate covered up all that they could, before transporting the safe to Washington DC. Be that as it may, the unmarked black van used to transport the safe never arrived at its destination. Instead, it was found in the middle of the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest in Montana, at the ghost town of Elkhorn. Both agents assigned to transporting the files were found dead in the front seats with bullet holes in their heads and the safe with the files was found missing and was never recovered, eventually finding their way to Latveria and Doom. Clearly the dictator had discovered the flaw of the machine by accident, then began exploiting said flaw on purpose to create his hybrids.

In spite of these revelations, this did not account for the unnatural strength and intelligence described to them by the fisherman. After searching the desk for a few minutes, they found the answer to this question as well. A small set of notes written by Doom himself detailed how before every combining process, the animals used were exposed a form of man made radiation in the form of luminous rays of green light, which left them physically unharmed, but increased their natural abilities, strengths and intelligence significantly. The plan, these notes stated, was to have these hybrid monsters at the head of the invading robot battalions on order to frighten the populations of every country on his hit list into submission. At this point Powers became aware of another door within the room. Upon opening it, the team found, much to their horror, an enormously spacious room containing hundreds of clear bulletproof boxes. All possessing air holes and each a different size to just about accommodate a specific animal. Most of them being either desert, jungle or forest animals with some domesticated pets and farm fauna added to the mix. All boxes had a flat, yet rounded, light bulb on their ceilings emitting a green light. Obviously the aforementioned radiation. The trio quickly set to work attempting to free what creatures they could before their deception was eventually discovered. Many cages were sadly already empty, but with Powers and Trevor breaking the locks to the cages the animals were soon able to run free into the other room. Eventually, they were joined by Tempest and Fonzerelli, their assistance advancing the rescue effort greatly. Mifune also assisted by picking the locks to the boxes. Soon, all of the containers were seemingly empty and Trevor directed her team back to the "Fusion Room" to destroy the equipment within. But Mifune, wanting no animal left behind, insisted that he be allowed to give the containers another inspection. Smiling at the young man's kindness and devotion to the lives of these beasts, Trevor agreed. It proved to be a worthwhile decision on Mifune's part as indeed, one animal _had_ been left unaccounted for.

As Mifune searched the middle portion of the room, he happened to come across one of the smaller boxes with the words "Mother Beagle + Six Pups" written on it. He peered inside, expecting to see the dog and her children huddled up in fright, but his heart sank when the nearly empty interior greeted his eyes. All that was left was a small beagle pup with plain cream coloured fur, chocolate brown ears and a matching tail, huddled in the corner, whimpering softly. Its mother and siblings were likely all gone and to Mifune's mind, probably already victims of Doom's fusion experiments. It also appeared to have gotten a significantly larger dose of radiation than the other animals as it was more dizzy and kept losing its balance when it tried to walk. The unconscious scientists had clearly neglected to turn off the light. Mifune soon corrected this and after opening the box, cradled the small canine in his arms, hoping that it wouldn't die in his grasp so soon after being saved. Luckily, the pup displayed signs of movement almost at once. licking its rescuer's cheek as a sign of appreciation.

Mifune was delighted that the pup was OK and quickly carried it to the Telepod room. To his slight annoyance, he found that his team mates had started without him in the destruction of the computers as well as the telepods. Even a few of the animals were destroying all that they could lay their paws or talons on. Mifune couldn't as he was still holding the Beagle, who now buried its head into his chest out of fear of the sounds of demolition. As Powers and Fonzerelli set to work smashing the telepods with pieces of the wreaked supercomputers, those in the room, both human and animal, began to develop the sensation that they were no longer alone. The company ceased their acts of destruction and turned their attention to the exit. Standing there, joined by King Flotcher, the scientists and a number of hybrids, was Victor von Doom. Upon seeing his equipment destroyed, he let out a roar of anger, threatening to destroy the League for their interference. Powers attempted to step up to Doom 1st, but the tyrant's mystic abilities quickly overwhelmed him as one of Doom's magical force-fields knocked him back. When the agent attempted to stand up, Trevor stepped ahead of him. Doom seemed amused by the amazonian's presence and it a perverse act of sarcasm, congratulated her on being able to lead such a "League of Fools" without them dying thus far. Refusing to let the subject be changed, the princess angrily condemned the doctor's actions and plans, demanding that he set the animals free and put the hybrids out of their misery, or face her in battle. Doom merely laughed in response and egotistically accepted Trevor's request for combat. One wave of his metallic gloved hand later, The hybrids, (some Apesquitoes, others entirely different combinations.) lunged forward to attack her and the team. Unwilling to harm them, Trevor did all that she could to hold them back using self defence but still managed to sustain mild cuts and bruises to her limbs, urging her friends to run and get the animals to safety. Before they could, Doom used his magic to shut and lock the door, trapping them. Now forced to fight for their own lives as well, the League did all they could to keep the Hybrids at bay while Trevor went head to head with Doom. Mifune, still carrying the puppy in his arms, used the chaos to carry it back to the container room and sit it down on a box hoping to recover it after the fight.

As the battle continued with the animals huddled together in a corner far from the action, the heroes started to feel fatigue setting in. The powerful hybrids, along with their super villain master were simply too strong for mortal men to defeat. Both sides were weakened of course, but in the end the exhausted Hybrids were left barely standing as the last bullets in Powers' possession left his gun. Trevor, a sword now in her hand, was finding it increasingly difficult to bring down her opponent. Sensing victory in his grasp, Doom began to taunt her. Continuously insulting her team to her face and declaring their imminent demises. With one final burst of emotion and energy, Trevor pushed the doctor aside and plunged her sword into the last standing computer, much to Doom's trepidation. The lights on the machine went dim as smoke began seeping from the narrow cracks. Suddenly, the manacles around the necks of the Hybrids unlocked and one by one, fell off. Now freed from Doom's power, they turned their attentions to their former master, while their former owner wisely decided to unlock the door and escape. As the team recovered they noticed the open door and Tempest lead all, including the animals, from the dungeons. As Trevor went to leave, it didn't take her long to notice the absence of Mifune, who had run back to the other room to fetch the puppy. as his teammates urged him on, the racer caught the sight of Doom attempting to fight off the hybrid animals with as much technology and magic as was necessary. Upon their escape, the team attempted to go back the way they came, but as they reached the drawbridge they found themselves blocked by a wall of Doombots, just managing to get through, the resulting confusion separating the League.

As S.H.I.E.L.D and Syndicate aircraft's began swarming around the castle, Trevor, Powers and Mifune managed to make it to the jet, but Tempest and Fonzerelli were forced to fight their way out of Latveria on foot. Upon reaching the wall, the two pushed their way through the iron gate and never looking back, ran into a dense grove of dead trees near the border. Both were thankful to be alive, but both wondered out loud on how best to return to Swisslakia. The answer to their problem came when the duo heard the sound of an engine's whistle very close to their location. Travelling a few inches more, they discovered, much to a rather sheepish Fonzereli's embarrassment, Billington pulling a single coach behind. Tempest was at first grateful to see Billington, then mildly scolded the Engine for heading off to Latveria without permission. Billington, quick with a rebuttal, explained what had happened at Bern, leaving Fonzerelli humiliated. Unsurprised but still annoyed, Tempest simply told the teacher that he would talk to him about his actions at a later date.

Both managed to arrive back at Bern at 10:00 AM and found their saddened comrades waiting there, as all three believed them to be dead. Upon being spotted, they were leaped upon and embraced with such force as to knock them down to the platform. (Even Powers himself was permitted to take part in such an emotional moment.) This moment was sadly interrupted when they were all joined by Kings David and Fredrick, Queen Rapunzel and Douglas, who thankful to see Mifune alive, wrapped his arms around his friend in affection. Despite this, Douglas still regretted his inability to help the team during the invasion of the castle, but Mifune assured him that by helping them locate the Hybrids with his inventions, he had helped them in significant ways. Then as a way of truly showing his gratitude, he pointed to the beagle pup, now in the arms of Trevor and taking it from her to Douglas, declared the (now confirmed) male dog to be his, explaining exactly where it had come from. Douglas wasn't sure if his parents would let him keep the puppy, but unable to refuse it after all it had been through, agreed to keep and look after it. After explaining the morning's events to the monarchs, King David proclaimed the League as heroes and that a great feast would be held at his castle in their honour, with all the delicacies of Swisslakia, Corona and Jugendheit. (with plenty of cheese to satisfy Douglas.) Following this, Billington revealed a surprise of his own to the Swisslaki King. While the team had been spying on Doom the night before, the engine, with help from his crew, had made a video call to Professor Yoshio Ochanomizu at the Ministry of Science in Japan, explained the situation regarding the King's Giant and had asked the Professor to take the remains to Japan to be not only rebuilt, but also upgraded with Japanese "Mecha" technology. Delighted to hear this, David used the video phone to give his blessing to Ochanomizu.

The team stayed at the castle a few days more and on April 18th, when Douglas was set to return to England via plane, he and Mifune shared a sad, but genuine farewell, promising to see each other again some day. The dog, hidden in an empty cracker tin with air holes poked in, was taken aboard the flight, never to be seen in that part of Europe again. A day later a team of S.H.I.E.L.D and Syndicate agents came to Swisslakia to meet the League. Agent K of the Syndicate informed the team that Doom had survived (having killed all of his creations), the freed animals had been rounded up and were now being cured slowly of the radiation effects, Doom's memory of everything from invasion plans to the discovery of the research papers had been erased, the destroyed technology had been carted away and the files were to be put into the hands of Phillipe Delambre, only when the young man was deemed responsible enough to use them. Nicholas Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D on the other hand had noticed Mifune carrying away some kind of animal which S.H.I.E.L.D believed had taken in a dose of radioactivity that _couldn't_ be cured from the castle and began rigorously questioning all involved with the mission, hoping to find whatever radioactivity exposed animal they had absconded with and destroy it, believing it to be a potential hazard or worse still, another "Bruce Banner" in the making. Not wanting to see the pup killed, the team in a compassionate, yet admittedly irresponsible act, denied ever taking any animals from the castle. In a display unheard of even now, The Syndicate, fully aware of the Leagues activities and the whereabouts of the dog, cleared them of any wrongdoing. All left on April 20th for their next assignment, never to forget what they had seen. All were naturally shaken up by the events but promised each other than no matter what, they would not allowed the experience to break them. A promise, that would in time be broken.

Austin Powers returned to England to report the League's victory to his superiors. His actions in helping the league, as few as they had been, earned him respect from George Hyde and Basil Mentero and an OBE from Queen Gloriana II. His life and career continued much as it had done since the beginning after that, the events at Castle Doom not significantly effecting him emotionally or mentally. In the summer of that same year, Powers confronted his arch nemesis and (as he would later find out) younger brother Douglas "Evil" Powers, (the two having been separated from birth after a tragic car explosion killed their mother while their father, former super-spy Sir Nigel Powers, believed Douglas to be dead, while the Powers family were on holiday in Europe) at the infamous "Electric Psychedelic Pussycat Swinger's Club" in London. The mad genius, who modelled himself after "Ernst Stavro Blofeld", head of the terrorist organisation SPECTRE, escaped once again from his brother's clutches by launching himself into space via a rocket disguised as a fast food restaurant logo, before cryogenically freezing himself, waiting for a day when all that Austin Powers stood for would be long gone. Fearing his nemesis' return, Powers voluntarily chose to freeze himself as well. Revived 30 years later upon his brother's return in order to foil his plan to melt the polar ice caps, Powers adjusted to the 1990s as best he could and fully returned to his former, hedonistic lifestyle in 1999, when it was revealed that his wife, the "daughter" of his partner and former lover Marie Kensington, Vanessa Kensington, was in fact a killer "fembot" created by his brother. (to make matters worse, it turned out that most of Powers' superiors had known this to be true for years but had said nothing.) In 2002, Powers was knighted by King Cedric I for his services to the crown and following the "Goldmember" mission of that same year, Powers learned the truth about his bother from their father. Following this revelation, Douglas Powers willingly reformed and assisted his elder brother on many of his missions thereafter. His former role being filed by his son, Scott "Evil" Powers. Today, though semi retired, Powers and his brother still continue to lend their aid in national security matters.

On April 27th, 1968, The Syndicate took The Delambre Files to their secret HQ in NYC and kept them locked away in a highly secured vault in the facility. 4 years later, they decided to finally return the files to the Delambre family anonymously in 1972. This turned out to be one of only a few huge mistakes made by the organisation, as one year later, after learning the truth about what became of his father shortly after his mother's funeral, Phillipe Delambre would foolishly try to replicate his father's ill fated experiments, hoping to succeed where Andre had failed, using financial backing from his uncle as well as his father's old files. Once again nonetheless, a fly entered the same telepod as Delambre producing similar results, only this time, the incident was deliberate. After spotting an industrial spy from Britain named "Ronald Holmes" after growing suspicious of him. Holmes had rendered Delambre unconscious and placed a fly in the same pod, hoping the results would kill the scientist as it had when Holmes had done the same thing to a British secret agent and a Guinea Pig, (the dead agent left with the rodent's paws and the rodent with human hands.) Luckily, this event ended somewhat happily, as while the "Phillipfly" would track down and kill Holmes as well as his mysterious benefactor, the fly with his true head and arm was recovered and soon, both were returned to normal.

Unwilling to accept that perhaps teleportation was too risky a concept and that it was "meddling in God's domain" as his Uncle had put it, Delambre wrote and published in secret, much to the chagrin of The Syndicate, a tell-all book, explaining the experiments of himself and his father to the population at large, hoping that someday, some genius surpassing that of the Delambre family would would make the experiments work without consequence. While this book was and is, met with ridicule and disbelief by most, a select few believed and managed to be captivated by its message. The most notable of these being American scientist Seth Brundle who, in the 1980s, attempted to recreate Andre Delambre's experiments himself. At first with animals (with some gruesome results) and finally with himself. By a coincidence too shocking to fathom, a housefly like the one both Delambre's had encountered entered the same pod. Unlike his Canadian predecessor however, Brundle didn't merely switch body parts with the insect. He fused with it, leading to terrifying transformation results over a long period of time both physically and mentally, the eventual "Brundlefly" being mercifully and willingly killed with a shotgun by Brundle's lover, as well as the first person he had ever divulged his secrets too, Particle Magazine journalist, Veronica Quaife. One more incident involving Brundle's experiments was recorded by the Syndicate in 1991 involving his unusual biological son (fully mature and bearing the appearance of a 25 year old man at five years old due to his father's Fly genes) Martin Brundle, before they finally stepped in. Covering up both events and making it a point to prevent and cover up as many teleportation experiments by civilians as they could until US Government scientists had fully perfected the technology.

King Flotcher returned to Drusselstein and life in the country continued as normal. Its only truly notable citizens outside of its borders being the Doofenshmirtz brothers, Heinz and his younger brother Roger. The latter went on to become Mayor of the town of Danville, Minnesota and the former becoming a "mad scientist" of sorts, who often tried to take over the "Tri-State Area", only to be thwarted time and time again by an intelligent "secret agent" Platypus from the mostly animal staffed organisation O.W.C.A, belonging to the two "boy geniuses" of the Flynn-Fletcher family.

Wally Douglas's life was never the same after _his_ encounter with the league. Perhaps for the better. Upon returning to his parents home in Wigan, he kept the Beagle pup hidden in his room where he played with and fed his new "friend" as much as he could. As the months went by, (during which Douglas decided to grow a horseshoe moustache to make himself outwardly more mature) the effects of the radiation on the puppy became more and more apparent. Rather than ageing as a normal dog will, it aged at the same rate as a human, meaning that by the time it was 9 months old, it had the same build as a 9 month old human infant. As if things weren't already strange enough, it had also developed the mannerisms of such an infant. (albeit slightly more intelligent) It soon became impossible for Douglas to keep this truth from his conservative parents who enraged that their son had brought such a "filthy beast" into their house, sent him packing with just about enough money to buy a house of his own, also forcing their son to take all of his belongings, including his inventions with him. Douglas was at 1st depressed about being mostly disinherited in this manner by his own mother and father, but soon found solace in the home he eventually chose for himself. A quaint, semi-detached house at 62, West Wallaby Street in the same city.

Taking up a series of part time jobs in Wigan in order to provide for himself and his dog, Douglas was able to scrape together just enough money to buy wallpaper for his home and a cake for his dog's 1st birthday. Following his (rather late) graduation from High School, Douglas' financial situation improved as he began to set up temporary businesses of his own to keep up his financial standing, His love for inventing became even more eccentric as he grew older, as he began furnishing his home from his bedroom to his basement with gadgets created (almost) for free using scrap metal from the local scrap yard along with common household objects. As the years went by, his dog began showing more and more human mannerisms. Eating chocolate based products proved harmless to its body, it took to walking on its hind legs in much the same style of the talking pigs of Manor Farm, (while it never talked) was able to communicate with body language as well as any human, had developed opposable thumbs and was capable of possessing human hobbies and interests such as knitting and gardening. It also developed a rather practical and somewhat cynical personality, as though it regarding its master as a close friend, it was clearly the smarter of the two and often bore the brunt of Douglas' eccentricities, which only worsened as he grew older. Douglas eventually succeeded in outfitting his home with a variety of machines and innovations that, while all rather odd and impractical, did their jobs well enough, for the most part and made both the lives of himself and his canine companion more interesting.

All the same, Douglas never fully settled down fully into an average domestic routine, as though while his neighbours came to accept his odd behaviour along with his remarkable dog and see him as a "respectable citizen" overall, in truth he had, though he never admitted it to anyone but the dog, a hidden desire for adventure that he could never quite satisfy. His passion for fermented milk curds became more worrying as Douglas entered his late 30s. Both passions reached a boiling point one evening in 1989 when the then 37 year old Douglas, upon finding no cheese in his fridge, decided to take a ''bank holiday'' to the moon. (Douglas was one of the few people who still believed the moon to be made out of cheese.) Miraculously constructing a fully functioning rocket ship of his own design within a day and a half, Douglas was able to travel from his basement to the moon in a matter of hours, where he not only discovered that the moon had a (recently developed) breathable atmosphere, but by chance, located a portion of the natural satellite that, improbable as it might seem, was indeed made from could only be described as "cheese." All of this was naturally covered up by The Syndicate, until the arrival of "Majo Bandora" doppelganger and intergalactic sorceress "Repulsa" made attempting to conceal the changes futile. Douglas and his dog in the meantime continued their exploits from that year forward, with the dog usually being the under credited hero of most. These included foiling a diamond robbery by a notorious ani-man Penguin using a model train set and a pair of ex-NASA "Techno Trousers" in 1993, stopping a band of sheep rustlers lead by a robotic "Cyber Dog" in 1995 and the infamous "Were Rabbit" incident of 2006. More importantly, Douglas became one of the few people aware of Mifune's whereabouts during his self imposed "disappearance", (to be explained in more detail at the conclusion of this entry.) As the racer had never forgotten his promise to his old friend to meet up with him again. Douglas, now at the age of 64, still continues to have the occasional adventure with his dog. The most recent being a meeting with his former crush, advertising mascot turned baker murdering "cereal killer", Paella Bakewell.

Doom, as mentioned previously, survived his encounter with the league with no memories of his own plans and upon the return of Dr. Richards and his troupe, his life went on as it had before. Doom remained the ruler of Latveria and a constant enemy to many american super heroes throughout his life, until his death in 1999. He was succeeded in both title and nickname by his adopted son Kristoff Vernard, who rules the country to this day.

(* So extensive and heavily detailed is this account of the League's Latverian mission, that it has received its own chapter. To read about the two other previously mentioned missions, please proceed the next two chapters in this entry)


End file.
